Seroquel & Blood pressure

I am currently taking Mirtazipine 60mg for depression & Seroquel 200mg for 'psychotic features' I also suffer from severe anxiety which both these meds are quite helpful with.

When I first started on Seroquel there were no major side effects, infact my body reacted to it quite well and I was very impressed with the effect it had on me.

Then one day a week ago I experienced a traumatic situation which stressed me out considerably. Having an anxiety disorder, I tend to relive traumatic experiences over and over, kind of like post-traumatic stress.

Anyway, that night all I wanted to do was fall asleep and forget about what happened that day, so I decided to take my meds a few hours before I would usually take them (about 2 hours before the usual time i'd take them)

I felt the usual drowsiness at first, then I started to feel incredibly light headed, I was lying down at the time, I got up and my legs turned to jelly... so I dropped back down into bed... I began to find it hard to move, my heart rate sky-rocketed, I was having palpitations (I think they were palpitations anyway?) and chest pains, and to top it all off I started having panic attacks. (which is an unsual thing to happen after taking a tranquilizer?)

I know of people who are on 800mg or more of Seroquel so I knew I didn't overdose... I was considering whether to call an ambulance, I wasn't sure if I was over reacting, if it was for real, or if it was all in my head.

Eventually I managed to fall asleep, and I woke up the next morning feeling slightly light headed, but apart from that I was fine.

None the less, it scared the crap out of me, and ever since I’ve dropped from 200mg to 50mg. Unfortunately my doctor was booked up for a few weeks, so I wont be seeing her till the end of this month, but I did manage to have a quick phone
conversation with her and she said it sounded like my blood pressure my have dropped. She said it was ok to reduce the dose from 200 – 100.

Just wondering if anyone can shed some light on why this happened… and if it still safe to continue the medication?

Seroquel may induce orthostatic hypotension associated with dizziness, tachycardia and, in some patients, syncope, especially during the initial dose-titration period.

During clinical trials of Seroquel 4% of 719 patients taking the medication reported incidents of hyotension (low blood pressure). In another group of 196 patients, 7% reported hypotension.

Seroquel Prescribing Info