hi all. i've recently gone back on seroquel for the 3rd (or 4th maybe!) time. the first time i was on it, i took it for ages (18 months or so) and had no major side effects. the 2nd time i got the effect of feeling very drunk. last time, last summer, it accelerated a stomach virus that was dormant and i landed in casualty after getting fever and passing out and being sick a lot at work (oops...).

i was a bit wary of going back on antipsychotics because (1) i hate the idea of being dependent on chemicals (although given my mood instability it's a necessary evil i suppose) and (2) they all seem to give me nasty side effects. i've been through zillions of anti-psychs and they have all done weird things. anyway, seroquel is the one that on the whole seems to affect me best in terms of mood and least in terms of side effects. so this was the one the doc decided to get me on.

so, i've been back on it a while, but the pdoc was very careful to titrate me really slowly to try to avoid collapse and sickness! at first the only side effect was the feeling of drunkenness and sleepiness. which i expected and can cope with.

i now have a new pdoc and he is quite keen for me to get onto a normal dose (ie 300-400mg), like i was on before, as i've had to re-titrate lithium and i'm only on 800mg not 1000mg like before.

i have exams on at the moment, so the capacity to take much seroquel in the mornings is virtually nil as it's still making me really sleepy and "drunken" (even 25mg) - but as it makes me sleep he has encouraged me to keep increasing the nightly dose, and then after exams to even out the morning and night doses.

i was on 75mg at night and 25 in the morning for quite a while but then he said i should increase the night dose by around 12.5mg every other night. i've been doing this over a space of around 2 weeks - i'm now up to 162.5mg (an increase of 12.5mg every 2-3 nights or so). but it's been problematic - or i think it has, but i want to find out whether what i'm experiencing is a likely side effect or just something else....

firstly i had to stop taking the morning dose of 25mg, because even after a few weeks of that dose i was still getting the drunkenness and sleepiness feelings most of the day. with exams i *cannot* afford to be sleepy in the day. apart from the fact that falling asleep in an exam would just be unthinkable, i have to revise for these too, and even on 25mg in the morning my brain goes to mush, i can't focus, i find myself drifting into lalaland. then i fall asleep for hours - not good. the pdoc wants me to increase the morning dose to at least 50mg, but i will be a wreck if i do!

the night time dosage is making me sleep very well at night, which is great. but since going above about 100mg at night, i've found that it hangs over to the day. these are problems i'm having which i've not had before - i'm not sure if they are the meds or just something else - can anyone advise?

if i take more than 100mg at night, the following day i feel lethargic, sluggish and tired. this is without the 25mg in the morning. everything feels like a major effort - sitting upright, standing up, walking etc. even breathing feels like a huge effort. walking the 8 mins or so to the station feels like running a marathon. plus i get major sleep urges, where i'll be sitting around and suddenly i *have to sleep*, and will be out for the count within seconds - which is somewhat worrying at exam time!

concurrently my chest has felt really tight, i've been wheezing a lot, i've found i've had to stop and take lots of deep breaths because i feel like i'm suffocating - and this is when i'm just sitting around, or lying in bed, when i walk around it gets worse.

the thing is i've had zillions of chest infections over time, and they think i have ME, as i felt flu-like symptoms for all of last year, and had 9 (no joke) chest infections between jan and april of this year alone. but i've not had one for a while - i've given up smoking (a big deal for me) and this seems to have stopped the infections. i've been feeling like i'm coming down with a cold, but that's only for a couple of days and i think it can be put down to stress of exams etc.

but the tight chest feeling coincides almost exactly with the first time i went over 100mg on seroquel - last night, because i was acutely aware of having an exam this morning, i only took 100mg as i really didn't want to feel sluggish today. on the whole i've felt better today - much less lethargic, and less sleepy but everything has still felt like an effort, breathing has been tight.

so after all that random waffle (oops) my question is: is next-day-lethargy a potential side effect of seroquel? and more worryingly, is tightness of the chest and difficulty breathing a possible side effect? i kind of hope it is, i really don't want another chest infection! and at least this can be fixed, if it is....