how long does it take seroquel to work?

I have been taking 200mg of seroquel at night for a few days now and its worked great for sleep and also decreasing my hyper sexuality which I suffer from with my bi polar.

I was wondering how long does it usually take to get into your system and work for other things like anxiety, anger, paranoia, mania/depression?

I have searched the net and it says it can take anywhere between 2-3 weeks at the least and 4-6 weeks at the most.

Is this accurate?

can anyone share there experiences with seroquel and how long it took to notice improvement in those areas of anxiety, anger, paranoia, and mania/depression?

Seroquel does not start working as an anti psychotic until 300mg. At 200 mg it still acts like an antihistamine.

Ok thanks so it won't start to effect things like anger and anxiety until 300mg or higher?

thank you for your input.

It will help a little you just won't get full effect. Has your doctor prescribed any prn's for anger and anxiety.

Everyone is different of course but I started having improvements several weeks in. I don't remember exactly how we did the dosing but think I went to 300XR + 100 regular the second or third week. Big-time improvement.

Tweaked dose some as I was still having some cycling. Winter was some rough times and upped dose more. Cleared up some (no doubt partly from Spring, as everyone does), then basically was over-sedated and stuck in a fog. Pulling back some now the last couple months and I'm doing everything I can behaviorally to help myself.

My doctor has tried a lot of different meds one for anxiety he tried was paxil but that increased mania in my mind.

I have read people who have had serious anger issues like homicidal ideation and tried everything under the book for there anger and once they tried seroquel it helped there anger a lot. There were only doing 75mg at night for the anger.

I have read the same thing about some people who have had anxiety at the same dose of 75mg it has helped with there anxiety.

I have read people needed much higher doses to help with any paranoia that they might have like more then 300mg.

With the chemical make up of my bi polar I have had all of these issues: anger, anxiety, and mixed it in paranoia and some disillusionment/grandiosity.

So I will talk to my doctor about what a therapeutic dose would be for anxiety and anger. As the seroquel is already helping with my issues of sleep and hyper sexuality . Also I believe it is helping with mania as well.

So it would make sense to explore the dosing a bit to see if it can help with the other issues and also for how long I will need to be on it .

Judging by the feedback I have seen here I will need to stay on it for a couple more weeks to see the full benefit

thanks for your feedback looks like I will have to give it more time to sink in and work.

I see my doctor next week and I will discuss it more with him not just the dosage but also how long.

thanks

No problem, glad to share experience. Yep, give it some time. Take as good care of yourself as you can in the meantime. Nutrition, exercise, hygiene etc. Sounds like you are slowing back down after an up period. I think it will help level you back out, and hopefully can stay or as close to as possible. Glad you are sleeping, is one of the most important things.

hi. seroquel acts as a sedating antihistamine at all doses, the "antipsychotic" dose requires a couple hundred mgs/day. I seem to recall reading that doses as low as 150mgs/day improved scores in some forms of depression (I'm guessing the agitated depressives). in addition to the dopamine-blocking, tranquilizer stuff, seroquel is metabolized into an additional chemical that does some kind of antidepressant thing, too.

anyway...point is...the sedation and anti-agitation, anti-anxiety effect is immediate and should last throughout treatment. do you have voices, paranoia, etc.? those can take longer to treat, and sometimes require higher doses. or....not. thing about tranquilizers/"antipsychotics" is...dosing varies -wildly- from person to person, even in the same diagnostic group. so, one "schizophrenic" might only need 1mgs/Haldol (or equivalent), while another "Schizophrenic" might need 10mgs/Haldol (or equivalent), and the "Bipolar I" person in the group might need 2.5mgs/Haldol.

personal advice...try to keep your dose as low as you can, while getting the effect you need. less is more, especially with the neuroleptics.

I've found that antipsychotics, unlike antidepressants, go to work quite quickly. As someone pointed out Seroquel can't be expected to work as an antipsychotic at such a low dose. Doses can go quite high into the 100's. It might though work as an bipolar antidepressant at your dose. It's FDA approved to, but I never found it did. I will say I found it to be mellower than other AP's I've tried.

What did you notice improvements in after a couple weeks ? what areas? was it just mania or other areas?

I don't hear voices but family members have reacted to me several times when I have a lot of anxiety and have said I am acting or thinking paranoid about things or overact to things and have paranoia mixed in with the angry, anxiety, over reacting part of my bi polar if that makes sense.

I read people have seen improvement in these areas such as anxiety or anger with only doses of 75mg . Some of those people suffered from Homicidal ideation. Currently I am taking 200mg at night for about a week or two. The most immediate improvement I saw was deeper sleep , sleeping well for a solid 8 hours. Getting to sleep is still hard and difficult to slow down my mind and racing thoughts.

I have also seen improvement in hyper sexuality decreasing. I swear I had a chemical imbalance in my brain that was causing me to almost compulsively have too high of a libido every day. And almost immediately after taking seroquel at 100mg or high seem to calm down that imbalance in my brain.

For me, even at a dose of 350 mg. Seroquel never did help with anything except sleep. And it caused me to gain a lot of weight. Now I'm physically addicted to the stuff so I can sleep. I wish I never would have gone on it. But, that's me. It helps a lot of people just fine.

I am pleased to hear that you are going back to see your doctor. Psych meds are not an exact science as each of our bodies and conditions will alter to a small or large extent. What works for one person may not be the same for another.

Definitely ask if you might be able to have prn's as a med to help you in this adjustment period.

thanks I have read weight gain can be a side effect. I can't seem to get to sleep even with seroquel.

I guess a person can get addicted to to prescription pills just like medical cannabis. Even thought they are supposed to be non habit forming.