Experiences with Seroquel?

Today I have a new side effect from what I assume is the Seroquel. It has decreased my appetite. I am worried about this because a little over one month ago I was eating one small thing every 28+ hours because I just could not bring myself to eat anything. So I am hoping that the loss of appetite passes quickly and doesn't develop into what I had previously. I remember I lost 10 pounds very quickly during the last time where I had no appetite.

Wow. I hope these side effects disappear. Your appetite and health are more important than Seroquel.

I only take 50mg. Doesn't it make you guys tired if you take it during the day?

I take mine an hour before I plan on going to sleep.

Psychiatrist increased my Seroquel to 150mg to try and combat my heightened anxiety I have been experiencing due to Risperidone withdrawal. I have to take 50mg of Seroquel in the morning, and still taking 100mg at night.

I did a clinical trial were I took 800 mg. of Seroquel a day for two months. It made the voices louder. Invega is the only medication that has ever helped me with my schizophrenic symptoms.

I am meant to take 50mg at night, mainly to sleep. But I get too drowsy in the morning. Unfortunately I cannot go to bed earlier, nor wake up later, so it is what it is.

I am now taking 25mg. Last night I was running extremely late, so I decided not to even take the 25mg. Bad idea. I tossed and turned until nearly mid-night, at which stage I gave up and took the damn tablet. Got to sleep in 30min and feel OK this morning.

I'm starting to put on weight. Not sure if it's from the low dose of Seroquel or the Sodium Valproate.

I've been on pretty much all the doses of Seroquel throughout the past several years (with the exception of greater than 800 mg, which is rarely given anyway). You are prescribed the Risperdal with Seroquel? I thought that was rare, because they are both AP's. Usually they just increase it, but I'm sure your pdoc has their reasons for it? For a brief time, I was on 2 AP's too though at once.

Back to Seroquel.....my dose is expected to go up once again. I am currently on 400 mg. At my lowest, I am typically on 300 mg, but years ago, I was taking lower doses. I can no longer go without 300 mg and stay stable.

I think Seroquel is great when it comes to getting sleep, but the problem is, if you work early in the day, it can take a while before you get up. I would take it a few hours before you are supposed to get to sleep at first to be safe. I've had incidents on the road early in the morning, where my vision gets blurry, but that's rare and just a sign that I need to take it earlier. That's more typical on the higher doses I've been on though.

100-200 mg: I left a little calmer, sleeping good. Works more like an antihistamine
300 mg, starts giving a little more of the mood stabilization effects, and especially so on 400+. Usually 400 mg, along with other meds helps me stay at baseline a while, unless something triggers mixed/mania. At 600 mg and above, the side effects started kicking in: involuntary shaking, appetite increases, blood pressure sometimes dropping when I wake up. It did work for mood and pulled me out of paranoia though.

200 mg did not give me much side effects at all though, so I do wish I could stay on that dose. Realistically though, that dose does not keep me stable for long. Others have success though. Oh, and don't let weight gain automatically scare you. It's more common on high doses. I'm built thin and never gained much weight on it, and it was weight neutral on 300 mg and below.

My Psychiatrist wants to take me off Risperdal soon. My dosage was previously at 2mg. It did not help my psychotic symptoms that much, so I'll be off it probably next week. Right now I think Seroquel is making me feel fatigued, I wind up sleeping for 12 hours, and feel like I could sleep for another 6 hours with ease. My entire body feels tired. However Seroquel has helped my depression and psychotic symptoms immensely. I assume I will have my dose increased when I come off Risperdal.

Has anyone been taking more than 500 mg of seroquel for depression? What has the response been?

Yes, the fatigue is difficult to deal with, especially when there are dosage changes or when you are new to the medication. It's strange how low dose Seroquel is supposed to be more sedating, but I felt that 600 mg of Seroquel was very sedating. Like you, it helped with depression and psychosis, but getting used to the sedation is difficult. The body does adjust usually so you are not sleeping as much as in the beginning though, at least in my experience.

My pdoc was considering Risperdal for me at one point, but I decided to stay on Seroquel, since not sleeping is a big trigger of mine, so I do need the sedation that Seroquel offers by all means! Seroquel XR was crappy for me. It took forever to knock me out, and I felt groggy all day. The immediate release/"regular" Seroquel was exactly what I needed.

I've been on Quetiapine (the generic of Seroquel) for about a year now at 25 mg. I feel way more like myself on it and so far my psychotic symptoms have not come back; so despite the terrible side effects I seem to be experiencing I want to stay on it. My anxiety is very low, and my hypervigilance and paranoia are also very low to negated. But it's not so low I feel numbed out like risperidone made me . . . that was horrible. Plus it made me lactate. NOT FUN. So that's why I primarily got off of it.

The negative side effects I've experienced on quetiapine is a very rapid 35 pounds in weight gain, no libido (which I didn't have much of anyways, as I was on risperidone 2 mg previously before switching), but I also have other possible side effects: chronic heartburn, constipation, and other digestive issues, possible menstrual issues as well. Has anyone else had these sorts of effects? 6 months into taking it, I started waking up with pain in my lower abdomen on both sides of my body. P-doc and PC think it's muscular, but I'm not so sure; new therapist thinks it's kidneys. I also wake up crampy, with menstral like cramps sometimes that last a few minutes and then go away. Once I get out of bed, the abdomenal pain subside but it takes some time. The crampiness comes and goes for about an hour after getting out of bed. This all started about 6 months into taking quetiapine. My menstrual periods have become very heavy for the first 3 days, though they are more regular than they were when I was on risperidone. I've also had more crampiness overall that lasts all throughout my cycle off and on, and pain and sensitivity all over, but especially my breasts; but no lactation! Although I have had the 35 lbs. in weight gain, I don't feel especially hungrier nor am I really eating any more or less than I was. So I know it's all due to the meds. Granted, I'm not as active as I was before either, so that's not helping I'm sure.

Mainly I take quetiapine to be able to fall asleep, because if I go for 3 or 4 nights on end with 4 or less hours of sleep, I will eventually enter a psychotic state which continues to get worse the less sleep I get. This has only been happening to me since 2014, when I had my first major psychotic break at 33. I was diagnosed originally with psychosis NOS and now I've been rediagnosed with depression with psychotic tendencies. Also, my psychotic tendencies tend to get worse starting in fall (October/November and then climaxes in December and January, gets a little better to the levels of early fall, but stays at that state until March/April). Quetiapine seems to have helped even this all out because the last 2 winters have been much better for me. In December of 2014 and 2015 I went in the emergency room twice, but avoided emergency room visits in 2016. Granted, sleep has been a little worse since December started this year, but I feel a lot more stable and am not having any delusions, hallucinations (auditory and mild visual) since then. The rest of the year, I seem to be in a state of mild to severe depression depending on what is happening in my life and in the world around me. It's a functional depression, one that wouldn't even appear as depression to anyone else outside of myself, with no suicidal tendencies. I'm not sure I'm diagnosed correctly . . . X^D But regardless.

I'm interested in hearing about any digestive or menstrual issues anyone has experienced while on it. Or is it just me, or is it something else? Quetiapine 25 mg. is the only med I'm currently on. I do drink alcohol while on it but not more than one to two beers at most per day, about 3-5 beers a week. I keep the alcohol level low, I won't drink a beer with more than 6.5% alcohol content. Does this have something to do with it maybe? I also drink coffee, but decaffeinated. I've eliminated most sources of caffeine from my diet due to the chronic insomnia issues I've experienced off and on my entire life, and that's helped; still eat chocolate, but sparingly! Coffee and tea are decaf only. But I feel like if I didn't take my quetiapine every night, I wouldn't be able to sleep more than likely. Sometimes, I take 50 mg if the first one doesn't help. I try to take the first one an hour before bed. Usually the second will help if I need to take it but I try not to take it after 1 am. I do that about 2-3 times a month, more in December.