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| |  Depression Drug, Mirtazapine, Steadies Hand Tremor ST. PAUL, MN -- September 22, 1999 -- Mirtazapine, a medication used to treat depression, may offer relief to patients with tremor, according to case reports in the September 22 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers identified a new use for the drug mirtazapine while using it to treat depression in a 73-year-old woman with mild Parkinson’s disease. The woman, an avid bridge player, had difficulty holding and dealing playing cards because of hand tremors. Within days of starting mirtazapine, the woman reported holding her playing cards with greater ease and without embarrassment, according to researchers. "Because tremors are difficult to control and few effective treatments exist, we felt compelled to explore the effects mirtazapine had on this woman with other patients experiencing similar disorders," said neurologist and study author Virginia Pact, MD, of Chapel Hill Neurology in Chapel Hill, NC. "Amazingly, in most people we studied, tremors were improved literally overnight after taking mirtazapine." These five case reports examined three people with tremor associated with Parkinson’s disease and two people with other tremor disorders. Researchers utilized patient reports to identify changes associated with mirtazapine. Patients reported that their relief in tremors led to improvement in activities such as eating, drinking or sleeping. Tremors returned in individuals who chose to stop taking the medication, but after resuming mirtazapine, the beneficial effects returned. In one case report a patient with Parkinson’s disease reported violent involuntary movements at periods throughout the day. The next morning, after taking mirtazapine, the patient’s wife reported to researchers that her husband shook for only 15 minutes. Some tremors may be improved by medications that cause drowsiness. In these case reports, mirtazapine relieved tremors without causing drowsiness.
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