any one tried Quetiapine?

[mouses]

have been prescribed this for mood stabiliser in it? was put off by list of side effect psych was telling me?

any one got experience on this med?
thanks

yes I have had it as a low dose and it was a brilliant mood stabiliser and helped till I could get therapy, The main issues were the sleepyness and increased appetite. I put on quite a bit of weight.

Im off it now and am glad to be ive lost all the weight too.

hth

Not firsthand, a close family member is on it.

It does make weight gain easy but you just have to be extra careful and she sleeps loads and loads on it. She's very extreme in her moods though and has been hospitalised so many times in the past 7 months I've lost count. It's keeping her out of hospital at least.

don't like the sound of weight gain, im already obsessed with how much fat I have! tho those who know me keep telling me im thin.

cant sleep loads cos i need to keep the house clean and exercise, I feel tired all the time as it is :-(

not sure if this is what I want? I know its what I need but dont want to get more stressed over weight gain.

I changed on to Quetiapine from Rispiridone early last year.

At first, I was wiped out and needed to sleep all the time. Now, it does still make me tired, but I can get through the day.

It was worked BRILLIANTLY for me. I am now completely well and back to functioning normally after a really rocky couple of years.

The only downside was the sugar cravings it gave me. I felt powerless against them and piled on 3 stones in 4 months. But, once I felt well and mentally strong, I managed to crack the sugar addiction cycle and lose a good deal of the extra weight.

similar to mawbroon it has worked really well for me, put on quite a lot of weight but once my mood had stabilised I have worked hard to get the weight off Haven't felt this well in a very long time!

I don't think this is for someone with fear of gaining weight, if I put on 3st in 4mths it would certainly send me suicidal :-(

think I need to speak to my gp/ psych?

sorry don't mean to sound ungrateful for meds that will help me, but I really do fear fat, I log food diaries and don't eat over my set calories, I wear a pedometer, weigh myself all the time.. it takes over my life enough already. id be even more paranoid.

I was worried about putting weight too, but I was mostly ok with it because when it came to well vs fat there was no doubt in my mind which was the better option.

In the end, it didn't come down to well vs fat because now I am both well and slim.

but it's not the medication that makes you gain weight is how hungry it makes you so you eat more than you would usually.

Maybe give yourself a time limit on it and then change it if it's not for you.. surely it may just be a relief to find some peace in your head if it works for you?

I put on 2-3stone in a couple of years but lost it all again without any effort on my part as soon as I came off it. As others have said its not the quetiapine but the increased appetitie plus sleepyness (reducing exercise) that puts on the weight.

maybe, but I know that if I gain weight I would stop despite if its working for my health.
ive had a weight/eating issues since I was young, all my family are obese and if I don't control 'me' I put on weight easy.

thanks for your time replying, it appreciated.

sorry katcatkat didn't see your post as I was typing.

I know the weight can come off but honestly im really ill with it, on screen or paper I know 53kg is small - but what I see in the mirror is overweight, if I was to put on any in the first place it would really affect me :-(

I need to do exercises, I need the energy to do them so cant be more tired then I am already.
gosh, I sound a right moron! :-(

I can understand. Being 'fat' could never allow me to be 'well'. It just doesn't add up. I take 300-350mg of Q. It works well and I'm still the same size. However, I eat a lot less and monitor my weight closely. What I've found:

• weight gain is dose dependant for me.
• below 300mg, my weight isn't affected

-at 300mg I hold onto an extra 1lb

• every 25mg increase after that , I hold into an extra 1-2lbs per 25mg.

As such, I can cope with going up to 350mg, but that's my absolute limit. I can see the my weight would soar on higher doses. Q causes terrible joint pain so I ant exercise, which surely must have an impact.

Contrary to what's been said above, it's not just that my appetite increases above 300mg, I think is also slows my metabolism. I eat just the same, but my body holds onto those extra pounds regardless of what I do.

Q has been an amazing med for me, but the joint paid is getting too much. We've been exploring options, but the fear that a new med would cause significant weight gain is having an impact.

Have you tried abilify? It's meant to have the least weight gain if APs.

Sorry for the double post. I've found some pdocs and CPNs dismiss fear of weight gain, esp. if you're still in a normal range. It was refreshing to hear my CPN saying that she couldn't stand gaining weight, either. There are some understanding MH profs. (Sort for carp typing, on phone)

ive only been prescribed 50mg. 25mg twice a day

i took one last night an hr before bed and within an hour i felt dazed and spaced. i tried to walk to my bedroom and just stumbled everywhere having to hold onto the wall. everything seemed worse, feared things were moving felt paranoid.
although i was out like a light once layin down. i couldn't get up this morning i was lifeless. my dd came in my room and her voice sounded 100 times louder - my tolerance is bad already but it was zero this morning and i managed to get up, nearly fell down the stairs with no balance.
some how i managed to get her to school, but i felt out of it. walking down the road like a zombie, didn't even see a car pulling out.

ive come home, usually id do my morning exercise but i just sat staring in to space, my jaw is loose like im catching flies!
my concentration is bad, this is awful, and its just one pill? was supposed to take the other one this morning but im scared now.

i need to function to look after the dc's

I lost weight through calorie counting when I took quetiapine. Clozapine is another matter

Yes, I started in 50mg and it knocked me out. I got used to it, but there's no way that I could have taken it in the morning. Are you on the extended release and regular version?

dontrunwithscissors how did you get through your day? how am I suppose to keep up with the kids, cooking etc?? especially th 4yo she's full of energy.
if it was just me on my own I wouldn't be so worried.
I took it before bed for the reason of not being too spaced out through the day - but I have been dozing on and off all day. haven't been able to get on with day to day stuff.

not sure what you mean by extended release or regular vision.

I'm on 150mg. I have been down to 100mg but just been upped again.

I have to take mine in the evening, It took me a while to find the best time to take it as if I took it too late I was still zonked the next day. It used to always make me feel spaced out once I'd taken it, but I've not been on it just over three years and for the last year or so, I don't get that feeling every night.

I have struggled with the increased appetite and weight gain in the first year, but I am now 1 1/2 stone down from then. So back to my normal amount of overweight!

I do find the tiredness side affect very frustrating as it limits what I can do in the evening, as I normally take my meds at 8.30 so I am very rarely out past 9pm!

It has really helped to stabilise my mood and I am so much better from how I was 3years ago, unfortunately I'm in a bad patch again and have been referred back to the mental health team (discharged 18mo ago) but even how I'm feeling now is still no where near as bad as I was.

My GP mentioned that they might give me a 'normal' anti-depressant to take alongside the Quetiapine, does anyone else do this?

jellybean i only took 25mg last night and cant bear thinking of how zonked i would have been had i taken this mornings pill! i was so confused im surprised i got my dd to school at all.

i felt so zombie i couldn't even move to cook dinner so ordered a take away (not often i do that) i cant do that every evening if i cant get off the sofa to cook.

im on them to help stabilise my mood, i really want to carry on taking them but i cant deal with the thought of tiredness and putting on weight.

i was on fluoxetine for 3yrs but it didn't really help. i refused to take a higher dose so they have put me on quetiapine.

It's a hard adjustment getting used to the tiredness, I'm surprised you have to take one in the morning as every time I see the GP they tell me to take in the evening due to tiredness.

I seem to remember (though i'm not 100%) being told the tiredness tends to be worse on the lower dose.

i wasn't told when to take it, packet says to take one twice a day so im assuming day and night?? if i took both last night i don't even think i could have got out of bed!

i think last nights one is wearing off cos im feeling 'with it' now - earlier i didn't even know what time of day it was! and that just 25mg

I took one pill, can't remember the dose but it made me so sleepy. My mood really dropped & I couldn't stop crying. It took 2 days to get out of my system. I felt really bad so never took it again.

im going to speak to my psychologist as i see her today, see what she says.

i can be a little more tired on days and have a nap - but yesterday was something else! i couldn't concentrate, head was woozy and just needed to sleep. not good when you have a 4yo to keep an eye on.

im hoping there is another option

forgot to add, my mood was terrible. to be honest im usually always grumpy and on edge but it was multiplied yesterday.
i have pet birds (very noisy) which normally don't bother me, but they seemed to go right through me and if i did have the energy to move i would have let them all go just to get rid of the noise!! i was yelling at kids to shut even tho they were just casually talking....