ster,

I have been on seroquel for over a year now. My pdoc gives me his samples & I can use them as necessary for my PTSD that came from the trauma I went through last year with the ID theft & abuse that I caught the home care RN doing with my mother when she was dying of cancer.

Initially, he had me on a different med (a benzo).....it had no effect on the nightmares, flashbacks, I the depersonalization experiences I was having. I had some left over seroquel from a previous prescription about a year before & decided to try it. I always try a small dose because of the horrible side effects I have with meds. The small dose didn't help at all, & even made matters worse because I would end up in the state between sleep & wake when most of the horrible nightmares hit. Since he gave me so many options for the med level, I kept increasing my night dose until it finally is working at 600mg at night. At that time, I was also suffering from anorexia from the nausea that I get from stress. I was medically hospitalized for almost 2 months last year being treated for anemia & malnutrition. He said that seroquel usually causes weight gain.....guess it does work some, since I am now stable around my lowest safe weight.

During the day when I end up with anxiety attacks or have the depersonalization experiences, that is when I use a smaller dose. I will increase the amount if I feel it isn't helping. He basically has given me the freedom to use it as I need it. I hate using it if I don't need it, but at night....I have no choice. I still am bothered with nightmares & flashbacks from the trauma..

Last month when I saw my pdoc, he told me to have a blood test taken by my GP because long term use of seroquel can cause high colestoral & possible diabetes. That was when he told me that weight gain is usual with seroquel . I so badly want to stay thin that I just don't eat when I gain a few pounds just to keep the weight off. It is really sad for me when I can find a medication that actually works without all the horrible side effects I usually have.....then I have to worry about high colestoral or diabetes......nothing like having to take a med to correct what another med causes. I am sure if the blood test comes back bad, I will probably stop the seroquel rather than have to worry about that kind of side effect......but I don't know how I will be able to deal with the nightmares & flashbacks.....am praying that it hasn't had that kind of effect since I am keeping my weight very low anyway. I have had several times that I have been treated for anorexia as an effect to a med (prozac & wellbutrin) or from stress......so weight gain isn't something I even allow.

I do find that in the morning, I can wake up groggy if I don't get a full 8 hours of sleep. I Friday when I had a horrible anxiety attack, I took a much higher dose of seroquel during the day. It really knocked me out. The main thing I have found with all meds is that if there is a strange side effect, I will end up with it. When I was on thorozine for anxiety, I ended up having an effect which was like having parkinson's disease. I was really scared because I quit the compozine for the nausea from my migraines because the dr's said that med can cause that side effect.....only it didn't go away until another Dr suggested that thorozine had the same possible side effect. It took over a month to get back to normal & during that time, I really thought it was permanent......very scarry when I couldn't even walk myself into the bathroom.

The other thing is that everybody reacts to a different dose....it is something that personally needs to be adjusted. If you don't have time in your life to be drousy, seroquel might not be a good med unless you can make sure you get enough sleep. Then to top that off, each body can react differently to things like the possibility of having diabetes or high colestoral. You never know until you try......but it is important for your Dr to be responsible to keep track of how you are doing on it.

Hope seroquel will work for you, but if it doesn't fit your life style, there may be another one that works for you,
Debbie