[Jacquard]

About six months ago, my pdoc prescribed me 50mg of Seroquel for insomnia related to unipolar depression. At first, it worked great, but the effect diminished over time while the side effects (mainly a strange hangover-ish feeling) didn't.

Monday, my pdoc and I decided to stop the Seroquel and switch to a new sleep med once it was out of my system. He told me, "You might have some trouble sleeping the first few nights".

I haven't slept in 48 hours, I can't stop shaking, and I have diahrrhea. I didn't realize it was possible to become physically dependent on Seroquel, but those symptoms seem to be evidence that it is.

I figure sooner or later, my body will reach its limit and force me to sleep. I hope that's sooner rather than later.

Hey there. Is it possible that (by co-incidence) you are fighting off a bit of a virus or stomach bug or something like that? I know that it would be a bit of a co-incidence that the timing of it is the way it is... But it could be the case.

I haven't heard of someone having such a severe withdrawal syndrome from Seroquel - but that isn't of course to say that nobody has such a severe withdrawal syndrome from Seroquel.

Do you know what the new sleep medication is that your doctor wants to try with you?

I guess... I'd be wary of taking sleep meds (if I was you) ESPECIALLY if what you are going through now is a withdrawal syndrome as if you are going through a withdrawal syndrome it is possible that your body is very sensitive to medications. The majority of sleeping medications have this unfortunate property of being addictive where people build up tolerance to them so that they don't work so well and then suffer through withdrawal effects. Minor tranquilisors (aka antipsychotics like seroquel) have general tranquilisor / sedative properties without being anywhere near as addictive as other sleeping medications such as benzodiazapenes or imovane / zo-tab etc. If you are having withdrawal syndrome effects from Seroquel then I really would be wary about moving on to something more 'hard core'.

One thing that might help is making sure that (no matter how bad you feel) you get up at your usual hour. Otherwise it will be all that much harder to get off to sleep the next evening. Exercise (to help tire your body out) could help too and abstaining from caffene...

Hang in there...

I am so sorry... I have been thru withdrawal before but not with this drug... Withdrawal can be very nasty...have you let your doc know??

[Shyguy88]

I also have a horrible seroquel withdrawal when it gets out of my system, I take three 25mg seroquel during the day and 300mg of seroquel at night. When I forget to take a dose during the day and when it gets out of my system I will have horrible brain zaps(feels like electrical jolts buzzing through my brain) I take seroquel to calm down during the day and help get to sleep at night but my body is immune to it so I just take it to prevent the headaches from coming...I know its definetly going to be hard to slowly wean off of it, and hopefully get a similar drug as seroquel thats effective.

[SecretGarden]

Whell.... Did not need to hear THIS right now... lol..... crapola..

[rpls]

Withdrawal should be gradual but not too slow. Using doses below 200mg is unlikely to be good for you. Terrible rebound insomnia after discontinuation is likely to last 4-6 weeks after discontinuation of the medicine. But you MUST discontinue because long-term use is a deadly dead-end.

This site might be useful: seroquelwithdrawal.blogspot.fi