Quetiapine - Anyone else taking this?

[MissManage]

I'm taking 150mg alongside Sertraline 200mg. My consultant tells me that I may need to gradually increase my dose to 300mg... not sure how I feel about this.

Has it helped anyone else? How is it to wean off them?

Hi, I've recently started it, currently on 100 mg alongside the 200 sertraline. I am taking it for major depressive disorder which is not responding to ssri. It's been ok side effects wise, just sleepy, but that's improving. I am feeling a bit better, yeah.

Hello, I was on 50mg for several months last year alongside Sertraline 200 mg. I feel it helped me a great deal. The only side effect was increased appetite. Obviously I was on a lower dose than you are but I had no problems coming off - went down to 25 mg then off quite easily. I still take 25mg sometimes now if I'm anxious or hyped up and need extra help to sleep and it helps a lot. Good luck.

Thanks guys

Hi, I take 300 mg a day, higher dose at night. I think it helps slow anxious, obsessive thinking and get a good night sleep. my concern is weight gain, and sometimes drowsiness. otherwise I keep taking them.

I've been on this for a few years now in doses ranging from 150-600mg.

Positives: it pulls me out of horrendous bipolar depressions, helps me sleep, reduces anxiety and helps keep me stable. When manic, it brings me down from the ceiling.

Negatives: On high doses it can be very sedating. 600mg when manic was ok, but impossible when stable. When on a 'maintenance' dose of 350mg a day, I struggled to get up in the morning, organise myself and do much.

Weight gain is tricky too. I can put on a stone in a month taking it as it massively increases your appetite and slows metabolism. Daily exercise is your friend here. Those effects are lesser or greater depending on the dose.

All in all it works quite well. I take it with a mood stabiliser, but try to stay on the lowest dose possible due to the sedation and appetite problems.

Watching this thread with interest as this is one of the meds I may try next if the current doesn't work.

Ive been trawling through some old threads on here for quetiapine, one thing that stuck with me is that one poster said that the instant release one worked a lot better that the slow release in terms of weight gain and tiredness, would be interested to hear if anyone else found the same.

I found that quetiapine made me very VERY angry as a side effect, so much so that I had to stop taking it after only 3 days because it was completely uncharacteristic. I did take it in the past though and it did work when I was having a particularly difficult time managing my bipolar disorder.

I've been on quetiapine for 3.5yrs. Taking 150mg. It worked well for me but I am about to switch to some thing else as although I am better than I was when I started, I'm still not right.

The only negative I have with it is the sedation. It obviously restricts doing things in the evening, but I found the better I ate the less sedated I felt.

I am currently reducing my dose by 25mg every other day. I've not had any issues coming off it.

I've been taking it for around two years now at 150mg to stabilize my moods alongside Depixol injections for my hallucinations/hearing voices. i haven't had any real side effects, other than the first month or so me being very sleepy but that passed pretty quickly. It works really well for me and I am one it for good now as my moods do not stablize by themselves and any form of anti depressant swings my moods wildly to 'high'. I am much more able to function normally on it than I ever have been without it.

I take huge amounts of other medications as well so the combination of all them (16 in total and counting) is what has caused me to gain weight, not one single drug on its own

I've been on Quetiapine since March last year. It works really well for me. I am completely well following a 2 year period of being psychotic or depressed.

But I couldn't shovel in enough sugar in the beginning and gained 3 stones in 4 months. I lost a lot of it once I was mentally strong enough, but it's creeping back on again. It feels like a constant battle with sugar.

I was on 150mg slow release, then my psych dropped it to 125mg. The 25mg tabs don't come in slow release form so I don't feel so drugged in the mornings.

Also, a couple of times if I've had a late night, I have taken my dose made up from the 25mg non slow release tablets and have noticed that I can cope better in the morning with those tabs. My work means I have to stay up late fairly regularly but I still have to be able to get out of bed to take the kids to school.

yes,been on it since April 350mg and a AD,i have Bipolar

positives

bought me out of a very dark time

quick working

relaxes you

negatives

sedating

makes me lazy

takes me 2hrs to wake fully in the morning

It seems to be the latest trendy drug. Downsides being the weight gain and sedation.

Quetiapine has been round for years so it's not trendy. It's popular because it works.

I take 500mg modified release and 200mg normal release every day. I've not gained any weight and don't feel in any way sedated.

Well you must be one of the lucky ones then, a quick search for quetiapine + weight gain shows how many people pile on the flab with this med. 700mg would KO me for days, you must have the constitution of an ox.

When I say trendy I meant the fact that it seems to have started out as an antipsychotics and now it is given out for everything from autism to insomnia to depression to bipolar....etc.

MawbroonI had the same problem of sedation on the extended release. I switched to the instant release and it was like taking a different medno sleepiness in the morning.

I take 325mg for bipolar 2, 98% of the problems are with lows. It's amazing for my mood and I haven't gained any weight. However, it does cause something awful joint pain and muscle weakness taht mean I take three different types of painkillers. I still can't exerciseand some days I can barely climb the stairs. I tried to move on to something else, but my mood plummeted, I attempted to kill myslef and went into hospital. So Im back on the Q.