[xRavenx]

I was just wondering for any of you who have been on high doses of Seroquel...or a change in doses throughout time, what side effects have you noticed around each dose on Seroquel? The pdoc recommended an increase, but I'm kind of nervous about how it is going to make me feel.

Call your pharmacy and ask their opinion. They can help you out... (((hugs)))

[franz kafka]

Started at 200mg. Side effects = hungry and sleepy.
Bumped to 600mg during manic episode. Side effects = made sleeping possible
Upped to 800 mg to deal with lingering psychotic symptoms. Side effects = visual hallucinations, seeing shadows in my peripheral vision.

Dropped back to 600mg because of the weird shadows thing. They're gone. I don't have any side effects from seroquel now.

[Gabyunbound]

I've taken it at high doses for hypo and mania and it brought me down, allowed me stability, at least for a while.

Using it for maintenance (at much lower doses, say 200 mg) it makes me way too sleepy and affects my memory (though per current pdoc cognitive issues are because of the combination with the methadone I take for Central Pain Syndrome and per other pdoc due to combination with klonopin).

At all doses except 25mg it's increased my hunger, though that tends to stabilize over time with me.

I prefer taking it only for sleep (25 mg). I'm going to talk to my pdoc next I see him about changing it to another atypical antipsychotic for maintenance. I already take Abilify for maintenance but pdocs seem to want me on 2.

The sedation is tremendous for some (like yours truly), but not for everyone. Maybe you should give a higher dose a try and see how it makes you feel? Good luck with it, my pdoc calls it an "obnoxious" but effective medication because it can help with both depression and hypo/mania.

[xRavenx]

Thanks for the replies. My pdoc did say it is a strong mood stabilizer, so I'm willing to give a higher dose a try since that is what I need right now. It sounds that on most doses it makes people feel sleepy in general, which isn't a bad thing, since when I'm getting manicky or "mixed mania", it is hard to sleep properly with any medication. Luckily, I have never noticed hunger. I'm usually on a middle dose, rather than a high dose though. I've been tolerating it well, with the exception of some days where I take it too late. Then, I feel hungover the next day. It's definitely the best antipsychotic med I've ever tried, and I've never gotten akathesia from it....so I'm going to try to stay hopeful that the higher dose will be the answer rather than changing to a new med.

[Wander]

I found lower doses more sedating, like 50mg would wipe me out and 300mg would only calm me. Got bad restless legs though so had to stop it.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I took it up to 1500 mg (XR). It was less sedating as it went up. Usually if I increased I was sleepy for a week or two and leveled out. 600 mg was my favorite dose;perfect balance of sedation and wakefulness when I was working.