[xRavenx]

I have a slight twitching sensation in my wrist and leg. It isn't constant, but it's enough where I am concerned about the Parkinson's-like symptoms, such as tardive dyskenisia developing....especially since sometimes it doesn't go away. The twitching and noticeable side effects of Seroquel hit me once I went to 600 mg. Recently, I was lowered to 400 mg, but the twitching is still there; but maybe to a lesser degree.

I am debating whether asking my pdoc to go down to 300 mg would prevent the chances of me developing any of the serious side effects of Seroquel. I know the medication works on different receptors at various doses.

For those of you who have been on high doses, but then lowered it due to side effects....did you notice a difference? Did certain side effects go away? Is there a particular dose that you found was best as far as minimal side effects?

[CobolCapsule]

My research tells me those type of side effects should go away under 400mg.

[still_crazy]

hi. i couldn't tolerate seroquel, so i can't give you personal experience ((sorry)), but...

...eps and tardive dyskinesia are turning out to be more common with --all-- of the 'atypical' tranquilizers than the early research led people to believe.

if you have tardive dyskinesia, an antipsychotic can suppress it. this is why people sometimes have 'withdrawal-emergent dyskinesia,' which means td that shows up when the tranquilizer is reduced or discontinued. sometimes it goes away on its own, sometimes it doesn't (really helpful, i know...). this is also why old school shrinks would ramp up doses of tranquilizers once td was starting to show. bad idea over the long haul, but it suppresses the movements short term.

im going to sound like a damn hippy, but...do you take antioxidants? i take: high dose c, b-100 complex, high dose b3, natural form E, plus other stuff...in the hopes of avoiding TD ((I take 30mgs abilify, so its kind of a concern). so far, so good...i dont even get tremor like i did before the vitamins.

there has been a little bit of research on melatonin in td. 10mgs per night was shown in one small study to reduce td considerably. high dose vitamin E has been used. one study i read used C with the E, to good effect. high dose B6 has also been used, and that seems to help, too.

im --not-- offering you actual medical advice, but i will say that the ideal dose is the lowest effective dose. td risk goes up with overall cumulative exposure to tranquilizers, even though the risk is never 0. the atypicals are kinda sneaky in that some people tolerate them just fine, and then...they have td. the risk with the older drugs is higher in bipolar people, for some reason. i dont know if that holds true for the 'atypicals' or not.

have you tried other tranquilizers? sometimes switching from one 'atypical' to another one takes care of these sorts of problems, and you still get symptom control.

i hope you and your doctor can work something out.

[xRavenx]

Originally Posted by still_crazy

hi. i couldn't tolerate seroquel, so i can't give you personal experience ((sorry)), but...

...eps and tardive dyskinesia are turning out to be more common with --all-- of the 'atypical' tranquilizers than the early research led people to believe.

if you have tardive dyskinesia, an antipsychotic can suppress it. this is why people sometimes have 'withdrawal-emergent dyskinesia,' which means td that shows up when the tranquilizer is reduced or discontinued. sometimes it goes away on its own, sometimes it doesn't (really helpful, i know...). this is also why old school shrinks would ramp up doses of tranquilizers once td was starting to show. bad idea over the long haul, but it suppresses the movements short term.

im going to sound like a damn hippy, but...do you take antioxidants? i take: high dose c, b-100 complex, high dose b3, natural form E, plus other stuff...in the hopes of avoiding TD ((I take 30mgs abilify, so its kind of a concern). so far, so good...i dont even get tremor like i did before the vitamins.

there has been a little bit of research on melatonin in td. 10mgs per night was shown in one small study to reduce td considerably. high dose vitamin E has been used. one study i read used C with the E, to good effect. high dose B6 has also been used, and that seems to help, too.

im --not-- offering you actual medical advice, but i will say that the ideal dose is the lowest effective dose. td risk goes up with overall cumulative exposure to tranquilizers, even though the risk is never 0. the atypicals are kinda sneaky in that some people tolerate them just fine, and then...they have td. the risk with the older drugs is higher in bipolar people, for some reason. i dont know if that holds true for the 'atypicals' or not.

have you tried other tranquilizers? sometimes switching from one 'atypical' to another one takes care of these sorts of problems, and you still get symptom control.

i hope you and your doctor can work something out.

Thank you. That all makes a lot of sense...I truly believe the lowest dose as clinically needed should be the best dose. I talked to my pdoc about my concerns last week. She informed me that the only time she sees "true" tardive dyskenisia is on much higher doses and more so on meds, such as Haldol and (perhaps stronger?) AP's. She says we can keep an eye on the slight tremor that I sometimes experience. She suspects maybe something else can be causing it, other than Seroquel.

In the past week, I did not notice it hardly at all.....so who knows. I don't take Melatonin, but thanks for the suggestions. I've been on a couple of other AP's. The one that comes to mind as the one before Seroquel is Abilify, but that was discontinued since I began to experience akathesia and restlessness.

My other current meds are Lamictal, Gabapentin, Klonopin, Xanax PRN (I don't use both Klonopin and Xanax together), along with Seroquel. I was glad to receive some reassurance from my pdoc and hoping not to go above 400 mg ever again, unless mania gets really out of hand again and if nothing else helps. I will definitely not switch to any atypicals again with a worst side effect profile than Seroquel.

[coyotee]

I'm struggling with seroquel right now. It's making my feet and legs twitch even at low doses. I'm down to 12.5 mg (Cut up the 50 mg tablet into 4) and it's still bothering me a little bit. I need to find something else. Shame though, because I felt like it helped mentally - even at that super low dose. Not for me though

[IrisClay]

I've been on Seroquel for 5 years. I am attempting discontinuation.
To answer your question. Yes, some side effects went away for me at lower doses... however, not all my side effects did. Some lingered on even with lower doses; that is why I am stopping the medication.

[IrisClay]

Oh, also; it could be an interaction between the medications you take. This happen to me when a doctor had me on Depakote and Trileptal at the same time. It was a bad combination for my body; and it reacted with violent, embarrassing head and neck twitching. Once the Depakote was stopped it went away.