Remeron

[iansmom]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum and I can't seem to find any previous questions about the use of Remeron. My son is 11 years old, ADHD and "central nervous system disorder" whatever that means and soon to be seen by a psych doc to "rule out conduct disorder". He takes Adderall 30mg XR daily and was on clonodine at bedtime but his pdoc refused to write any more prescriptions as of about 6 weeks ago. He has not had a good night's sleep since. After waiting 6 weeks to see the neurologist, she recommended I try Remeron 15mg to help him sleep. She also said that it would make him eat well and gain weight. He is so skinny it's heartbreaking to look at him. So, I'm hoping this works but I would like any feedback any of you can give me.

Thanks!

[HooDunnit]

Hi iansmom and welcome to the forums. I hope that someone can answer your question soon.

[Dad2Brooke]

iansmom, welcome to ADHD Support.

Sorry to hear of your sons troubles.

I googled "remeron" and came up with the following:

www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/mirtaz_ad.htm

This is some good info about it from rxlist.com, they generally tell you in laymans terms what good and bad there is about a med.

It says that 2 of the biggest side effects of the drug are sleepiness and weight gain. Which are two of the things you are looking for.

Also here is Remeron's website:

www.remeron.com/

Apparently Remeron is a treatment for depression.

So it treats depression, and the side effects are beneficial to what you are looking for for your son, but I wonder if he needs a depression med to get that?

I would definitely be asking his doctor more about it.

I have no personal experience with this med, but this is what I found using google. Of course there is a ton more data that I didn't put here.

Good luck with your research.

[LaurieL]

Hi Iansmom.
My son has been on Remeron for about a year now. We used it basically for anxiety. It is a pretty benign. It helped him sleep and he ate a little more when we used it. I did take him off it for the summer. He is still taking strattera. I was pleased with it and may use it again in the fall.

[Dad2Brooke]

LaurieL said:

Hi Iansmom.
My son has been on Remeron for about a year now. We used it basically for anxiety. It is a pretty benign. It helped him sleep and he ate a little more when we used it. I did take him off it for the summer. He is still taking strattera. I was pleased with it and may use it again in the fall.

LaurieL, quick question. When you say anxiety, what do you mean?

Brooke is always worrying about what to do next. Often she can't even enjoy something fun that she is doing, because she is concerned about what might be happening next. It really drives my wife and I crazy, that she can't appreciate what she has.

Also, we rarely tell Brooke about anything planned in advance. If she knows, she will ask a million times if is time for the event, and if for some reason it falls through, then it is the end of the world for her.

Finally, she has never been one to delay gratification. If she can get it now, she wants it now. She will chew (if we let her) all 5 pieces of Big Red, rather than save some for tomorrow.

Is this anxiety? And Remeron helps with that?

What was your son's anxiety like?

[iansmom]

LaurieL said:

Hi Iansmom.
My son has been on Remeron for about a year now. We used it basically for anxiety. It is a pretty benign. It helped him sleep and he ate a little more when we used it. I did take him off it for the summer. He is still taking strattera. I was pleased with it and may use it again in the fall.

Laurie L,
Thanks for your reply and the good news that it did work for your son. So far, it is helping my son to sleep and the hour before it kicks in, he's eating a lot. I'm not sure if this is because he knows it's supposed to make him hungry or because it actually is. But whatEVER the reason, I'm happy!!!

[iansmom]

Dad2Brooke said:

iansmom, welcome to ADHD Support.
Sorry to hear of your sons troubles.
I googled "remeron" and came up with the following:

Thank you for looking all that up for me! I'm sorry I missed your response before. That is a lot of information and I will check it all out.

[LaurieL]

Dad2Brooke-
My son would kind of grab on to something and worry about it...which led to what we thought was a tic but I think it was caused more by anxiety. He was on strattera and a small dose of adderall and then remeron at night last school year. It was his first year where he had a good year. He stopped doing his tic thing and just sort of seemed more relaxed.
I don't know if what you described is anxiety but I see a lot of my son in that description.
Ian'smom that is what happened with my son he would eat right before bed time and the would have a good nights sleep. I took him off the remeron about three weeks ago because of summer, but now may add it back in as his appetite is just terrible. I am going to the doctor with him today for a med check so I may add that back in. It is just hard giving him all these meds....still.

[Honeysmom]

Hi Iansmom and welcome.

I also looked up remeron on Yahoo! and here is a site that you should look at:

www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=About_Medications&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=7396

You had said that he had a central nervous system disorder and maybe ODD or CD. When reading this it did say that with the use of stimulants (adderall) it can cause episodes of maina or an increase in agitation. I wonder if this would add to his problem with sleeping. I had this happen to me a while back with another anti-depressant and I could not sleep for the life of me. You wouldn't know for sure how he is going to react until he takes it, but if he does (or did) I'd keep an eye on his moods and sleepyness for a few weeks just to be safe.

I didn't send you this to scare you, but sometimes our doc's perscribe things and forget or don't realize that they can interact with other meds. I guess if he already not sleeping well and showing signs of CD you wouldn't want to add to that.

Hope it
works out wll for you...Becky

[iansmom]

Honeysmom said:

You had said that he had a central nervous system disorder and maybe ODD or CD. When reading this it did say that with the use of stimulants (adderall) it can cause episodes of maina or an increase in agitation. I wonder if this would add to his problem with sleeping. I had this happen to me a while back with another anti-depressant and I could not sleep for the life of me. You wouldn't know for sure how he is going to react until he takes it, but if he does (or did) I'd keep an eye on his moods and sleepyness for a few weeks just to be safe.

I didn't send you this to scare you, but sometimes our doc's perscribe things and forget or don't realize that they can interact with other meds. I guess if he already not sleeping well and showing signs of CD you wouldn't want to add to that.

Hope it
works out wll for you...Becky

Hi Becky,
Thanks for looking it up for me. I appreciate it and your response.
I truly do not think my son has ODD or CD. The psychologist that saw him last September wanted us to "rule it out" before going on to the next step in trying to figure out exactly what IS wrong with him. I don't see any ODD behaviour. My daughter is bipolar and let me tell you there is a huge difference in them. My son doesn't do what we ask because 5 minutes after we ask him, he's forgotten. My daughter doesn't do what we ask because she's being obstinate! lol
They called it "central nervous system disorder" because he is 11 yo and they say his mind is between 6-7. He has no cause and effect and he has learning disabilities. Yet this "dumb" child passed the leap test this year when 50% of the REGULAR class failed it. I honestly think they called it that because they don't know what it is.
The Remeron is helping him to sleep. He's fine when he gets up. So far, he's shown no signs of aggitation, which is a good thing!! And he is eating a bit better during the day along with after he takes the pill at night. So I'm happy with it.