[Blueberrybook]

My pdoc had temporarily upped my Seroquel dosage to 450 mg/night due to a recent bout of manic symptoms. The mania seems to have subsided a bit, and I called him up today and asked if I could go back down to the 300 mg/night. The 450 mg was just making me so tired, I needed to nap every day. He said OK, but if I get manicky again to call him and we'll discuss the dosage, or I might have to come in early. I hope and pray I do not fall back into mania. I can't stay that tired every day especially since the school year is drawing to a close, and I will have my daughter at home all day for the summer, except for a couple of week long day camps. I can tolerate the 300 mg/night just fine, but not above that. I think it is worse in that it is also that time of month for me, and because I had a perforated ulcer, I can no longer use NSAIDs for pain, only Tylenol, which doesn't do a thing for me. Fingers crossed manic symptoms won't return.

I hate having to constantly tinker with meds...sigh.

[CANDC]

hi cln1812. Welcome to Psych Central. Talking to your pdoc before making changes sounds like a good thing to do.

Other options a friend discussed with their pdoc are to split the dose between morning and evening and there is a slow release version but I do not think it is out in a generic, so probably much more expensive

[Blueberrybook]

I've tried the timed-release version, but that didn't work well for me at all. It made me want to sleep all the time. I don't think that is the intention of the pill, but that is how it affected me. I just hope I can maintain normal behavior and not fall back into being hypomanic.

Going from 450 mg to 300 mg is a rather large decrease to my psychiatrist's point of view. Mine usually lowers my dose by 50 mg at a time, though I take Seroquel XR, whose lowest dose is 50 mg.

I hope you feel better at your lower dose. I have been taking 450 mg Seroquel XR for a while now and do great. I never need a nap, and sleep about 7-8 hours per night and wake up fine. It goes to show that the reactions to different doses and regular Seroquel vs. Seroquel XR can vary by person. If I've been manic, even 600 mg (along with my other bipolar meds) only slows me down a little. However, over time higher doses sedate me too much, too, and my dosage is lowered, but usually only 50 mg at a time.

I think 450 mg Seroquel XR happens to be my personal sweet spot, but I tend to be able to handle higher doses than some other people. I take a rather high dose of Tegretol XR (carbamazepine ER), too, at 1400 mg per day.