[xRavenx]

My pdoc increases and decreases my Seroquel, depending on whether I am getting manic/mixed or not. I was on 600 mg for a while, and it worked for an acute onset of a manic episode most recently. It was the one thing that pulled me out of it, with time.

The thing is, I became very depressed after and wondered why I was crying every day and hardly making it. This was while on a high dose of Seroquel.
The weird thing is, we played around with my meds, and a few weeks after lowering my Seroquel to 400 mg, the severe depression went away. At first, I became the bad kind of irritable, angry hypomanic when lowering it, but things leveled out afterwards. I feel much better than before, although I will always deal with some symptoms. I have my really bad days, but things could be a lot worse.

This makes me wonder: was the higher dose of Seroquel actually making me more depressed, since my depression improved after adjusting to a lower dose?
I think about this, since I was a lot more depressed on 600-800mg range. Or, I wonder, if the swing from mixed/mania to severe depression was unrelated to being on a high Seroquel dose?

I know nobody can really answer, but it makes me wonder, whether high dose Seroquel was causing the depression, although it helped with mania. I am also wondering if anyone has experienced a higher dose of Seroquel or any medication actually making the BP worse, but then things got better for you on a lower dose?

[Terabithia]

I take 200 mg lamictal, to treat the depressive side of bipolar. When it was upped to 300mg, I became very depressed. I think that what you are thinking is possible. I take 300mg seroquel. I get paranoid if I take less, and if I have to take more, I'm knocked out. Was the depression a flat feeling? because with a lot of medications, being on too high a dose can cause that.

Raven, I had the same experience with higher doses of Seroquel! It's not just you!

I was flat AND depressed. Didn't like it, so I had to go off the drug. (I wasn't depressed before we upped the dose, either. It happened during titration.)

Probably not the exact answer you're looking for, but yeah... Seroquel can make me depressed, so it's not just you.

[liveforsummer]

I'm really sensitive to drugs even at low doses. My doc put me on Seroquel 3 weeks ago starting at 25 mg and working my way to 100mg at bed time. Once I was on the 100mg about a week into it my mood started to go downhill and to the point of having really bad thoughts this past week. Freaked me out so I've started tapering off and am at 50mg at bed time last 2 nights and feel better again ( though doubt such a low dose will do anything much for evening my mood in the long run). I'm just going to wean off in next few days and take it up with my doc when I see him in August. That's just my experience, take it with a grain of salt. Good luck

[xRavenx]

Originally Posted by Terabithia

I take 200 mg lamictal, to treat the depressive side of bipolar. When it was upped to 300mg, I became very depressed. I think that what you are thinking is possible. I take 300mg seroquel. I get paranoid if I take less, and if I have to take more, I'm knocked out. Was the depression a flat feeling? because with a lot of medications, being on too high a dose can cause that.

My mood was definitely flatter. At some point daily though, I would find myself crying and re-living past upsetting events. The more I think of it, I almost cried at some point almost every day while being on 600 mg+. It's too bad that Seroquel didn't work better for the depressive side of BP. It does help give me some relief from mixed/manic episodes. It's the one thing that helps me sleep, unfortunately. I wish more out there helped with that. Lamictal was opposite for me, in the sense that going from 200 mg-400 mg made a good difference.

[raspberrytorte]

I tried to kill myself when I was on seroquel, so yeah it can make you depressed at whatever dose! I was on 300mg.

[xRavenx]

Originally Posted by raspberrytorte

I tried to kill myself when I was on seroquel, so yeah it can make you depressed at whatever dose! I was on 300mg.

(((Hugs))) So sorry you went through that and on a medication that is supposed to help people "feel better." I'm definitely going to stay aware of some of these possible risks and be cautious of any changes.

[Wild Coyote]

xRavenx,

So sorry you are going through this. I hope it gets sorted soon.


WC

[xRavenx]

Originally Posted by Wild Coyote

xRavenx,

So sorry you are going through this. I hope it gets sorted soon.


WC

Thank you, WC. Medication is so tricky. There's so many meds out there, and it's often trial and error before figuring out a good combination. For me, it's pretty common to find a combo that seems to be working out okay, but something will stop working and/or side effects will get in the way. Throughout Fall and Winter, my pdoc and I were seeing each other nearly weekly, since we were going through the frustration of finding a new combination after a string of some pretty bad episodes. I'm just going to try and stick it out for the next 2 weeks until I see my pdoc. Today, I was a little more "even" than usual, but I don't want to jinx it, since every day is different lately. I'll just try to take it one moment at a time.