does Seroquel also help with the depressive phase of bipolar?

I saw my pdoc yesterday and told him I'd been feeling depressed lately, negative thoughts, lack of concentration, wanting to sleep all day, isolating. He upped my dosage of Seroquel. I know my pdocs have used Seroquel to help with mania, but does it help with depression too? I hope so; it's been bad lately. I love to read and can barely concentrate to get past a page of a book. He also upped my Buspar.

Seroquel was fine for me until we increased the dose "too high" one day. It literally gave me the worst depression I have ever had in my entire life. Once I went off the med, I felt normal. So I know for sure it was the seroquel.

My Seroquel XR is so valuable to me. It has helped with my past manic, mixed manic, and depressive episodes. It is also helpful in calming my anxiety and agitation. Obviously it also helps me sleep. The XR is not that weight unfriendly for me, at least not nearly as unfriendly as other antipsychotics. It is also great in that it has never given me EPS of any sort, nor hyperprolactinemia. It might be a culprit in raising my cholesterol, but I try to eat low cholesterol to manage that.

My doses of Seroquel XR usually range from 350-600 mg depending on my mood situation. I think I might have once reached 800 mg of the regular a long time ago. That's my range. When I'm manic or mixed it goes up. Interestingly, when I'm depressed sometimes raising it helps and sometimes lowering it helps. It sort of depends on if the depression is very low energy or not and/or other characteristics. As an anxiety prn, a small extra dose like 50 mg can be helpful. I have even taken regular Seroquel prn for such things.

In my med mix of Tegretol XR, Lamictal, Klonopin, and Seroquel XR it is always the Seroquel XR dose that is manipulated, except for occasional prn Ativan.

Thanks, birdDancer. I haven't had weight issues on Seroquel either though I take the regular release, not the XR. The extended release made me want to sleep all the time, and regular release did better for me. My pdocs have always manipulated it for treating mania but this is the first time one has changed it to treat depression. However, I recently changed pdocs (old pdoc of 10 years retiring). I hope it helps for depression with me too. Yes, it is definitely the best med I've found for sleep.

My pdoc just sent me for bloodwork yesterday. Cholesterol and other stuff, thyroid, B vitamins, vitamin D. So far, my cholesterol numbers have been OK on Seroquel, but it has been a year since I've had my cholesterol checked.

I think Seroquel at the “correct” dose can help with depression (I took it for a while, I can’t tolerate it now )

Seroquel XR took me out of a nasty depression. Unfortunately it made me so tired I could barely function. I should have tried the regular release but this was in my chronic med ditching days lol.

That is what they added to my meds while IP. I have also taken it in the past for depresssion

It did for me. I was on doses ranging from 300-1500 mg with the higher doses mostly used for mixed episodes or depression. It worked for many years and then stopped and I changed to clozapine.

I think the seroquel is used to stop the mind from thinking over and over the same thing, and improving sleeping. I think it does not help with depression. But, maintaining a good sleeping process over time can help overcome mood swings, speaking from my own experience.

I've heard of many wonderful experiences with Seroquel. I hope, hope, hope it's helpful for you.


My experience with Seroquel is not great. When I started taking it I weighed 110lbs. (I'm 5'6") and was in great shape. I have gained a full 100lbs. on Seroquel. Last year my pdoc drooped the dose down to a "helping with sleep" dose. I don't think it's doing anything to help me in any way. I am currently going off the stuff.

seroquel is the magic bullet for my bipolar. Depression is by far my largest problem and it keeps me out of the danger zone

I'm not a seroquel fan. it made my depression worse. having said that...

I looked it up, and the available large scale data shows it can help a good number of people with all phases of bipolar I+II.

still...personally, when I'm down, I want my tranquilizer lowered, not ramped up, unless its agitated depression, and then I need the tranq maxed out and stuff added. But...that's me, obviously...not you. I do find it troubling that you're having difficulty concentrating, you're apathetic, and the shrink is ramping up a very sedating tranquilizer. but...

seroquel has an active metabolite that does some kind of reuptake inhibition. I guess pushing the dose up would increase the amount of that metabolite floating around? buspar is also sometimes used to boost other treatments for anxiety and mood, so that might be part of what's going on there.

sorry about your situation. i do hope things get better for you.

Seroquel was great for me. I was started on it as a crisis med ip, then continued taking it for many years. It was approved by the FDA in 2006 for bipolar depression.

I'm thinking of asking my doc if I can switch to Seroquel since I read it treats both mania and depression. Right now I take Wellbutrin for the depression and Abilify for the mania. They work well enough but I wonder if it'd be better to take only one medication. I'm not sure yet since I have been symptom free so long, and not sure I want to risk going off the rails again just to switch. Let me know how it works for you, please

I don't know about that but my Doc told me it's the least effective anti-psychotic for bpd out of zyprexa and risperdal.

i personally do better with abilify. abilify is somewhat unusual in that low doses can help depression w/ an antidepressant, but the normal doses for bipolar and schizophrenia aren't usually that great for depression. Thanks, Big Pharma.

on the plus side, Abilify causes less weight gain and far less sedation than Seroquel. Seroquel might have a somewhat lower risk of TD, although...that seems unclear.

Wellbutrin+Abilify worked well for me...now its Lamictal+Abilify, which is actually a bit better, overall.

a shrink once recommended amoxapine. I kind of wish I'd at least tried it...old school antidepressant that does double duty as a tranquilizer. I wonder if that could be a 1 drug miracle for some Bipolar, possibly some Schizophrenic, people?

They added Seroquel when I was ip back in Sept. I really think it's helping. Only taking 100mg at night. Helps me sleep good as well