Quetiapine (100mg) to treat Major Depressive Disorder

[causticthings]

Hello all,

I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience of taking Quetiapine (100mg) alongside other medications to aid Major Depressive Disorder and what your feelings around this medication are?

Thank you

I take this. I find it very beneficial for anxiety reduction I don't think it is considered an anti-depressant at all. It's in the anti phycotic class.

I don't suffer from any (major) side effects but apparently tiredness is very common when starting.

I take this. I have had no problems with side effects. I take it as a mood stabilizer. I've found it helpful.

@PurpleFrames Thank you! It's not being used as an antidepressant as I already take Paroxetine. It's more of an "add-on" medication as my mood has remained consistently low for some time now.

@Prawnofthepatriarchy Thank you! I'll have to see how I get on.

Is MDD your only diagnosis? I have 2yrs+ depression that isn't shifting and am totally unsure where to start meds wise, I have a review in 2 weeks..

@PurpleFrames My "diagnosis" is Postnatal Depression (Treatment Resistive / Severe) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I was diagnosed with Depression in 2015 and since then, my mood has been up and down. After I had my baby in February of this year, my mood has gone down and hasn't seemed to pick back up!

I've tried so many medications / combinations of medications and have had ECT but it's still not shifting. I do find SSRI antidepressants have been most effective in the past (i.e. Sertraline / Paroxetine).

I do hope your review goes okay!

quetiapine is an anti-psychotic. i take 425mg a day, alongside mirtazapine, vortioxetine, pregablin and other meds for physical issues.

i have a diagnosis of MDD, along with BPD, OCD, C-PTSD and GAD. i take so much medication i haven’t worked for 7 years now, since a major breakdown that earned me 6 weeks on a psych ward. i’ve been on anti-depressants on and off since i was 18, and am now 46.

quetiapine does regulate my moods, as far as i can tell. BPD is like a bastard lucky dip and i never know what i’m getting from one minute to the next - up, down, sideways...i’m not as unstable mood-wise in that i don’t get the rage or the utter, black despair. mostly i just feel numb, which in medical terms means i’m doing ok.

i take 400mg at night, as i have a lot of problems with sleep, and 25mg in the morning for anxiety.

the only side effect, and it has been a major one, is how fat it’s made me. it’s notorious for making you starving, and it also binds to fat molecules to make it harder to lose the weight you inevitably gain.

my attitude has been better fat and alive than skinny, unmedicated and dead!

i hope you settle into it. OP, and that it helps. i’m in the middle of trying to get a psychiatrist appointment to discuss ECT - how did you find that, if that’s ok to ask?

@exWifebeginsAgainat46 Thank you for your reply, it's helpful to hear others experiences.

I'm so sorry for how much rubbish you've been through, but you seem strong and have a positive mindset (I did have a small chuckle at your "better to be fat and alive"). I have heard that from a few people about the weight gain side effect so I shall have to keep an eye on that.

I didn't find ECT effective (but I think I was on the wrong medication at the time) and it was quite a difficult treatment (the whole scenario of each session caused me a lot of anxiety). However, I work as a Mental Health Nurse and I've seen it work WONDERS for people; it's a very good treatment usually and the outcomes that I've seen have been incredible so definitely push for that if you can!

Quetiapine is an anti-psychotic. My DH used to be on a high dose of it but was switched to a different med and takes a small 25mg Quetiapine as PRN as needed.

It can be very sedating so if you have trouble with that, then you might be able to take it at a different time of day or "split it" so some in the morning and some in the evening, that's what happened here after talking it through with the professionals. Talk anything like that through with a professional dr/psychiatrist first though.

It can also make you very hungry and weight gain is a side effect. DH used to feel like he wanted an extra evening meal when on it.

It does work very well though and it's effective. One of the better meds that seemed to have worked.

Also to add, it's very helpful for anxiety too.

I tried quetiapine and aripiprazole (as an adjunct for MDD & BPD), but found them both so sedating I couldn't keep taking them. I'm on lamotrigine & venlafaxine for now, but tbh really bad at the moment.

@exWifebeginsAgainat46 how are you getting on with vortioxetine? I was on it a couple of years ago & it sent me into terrible anxiety. That plus the nausea. I didn't persist, but tbh wondered if I should have as my mood felt lighter.

@QueenOfOversharing the vortioxetine is working well for me.

i had a brutal 18 months where i swapped venlafaxine (on it for years, then it bottomed out on me) for sertraline, then sertraline HATED me so i changed again to the vortioxetine. it’s definitely calmed my OCD down, but then i’ve recently split from a very stressful relationship and i think living in a small space on my own has also worked wonders.

to be honest, i’m on so many different meds, and it’s complicated by arthritis medication and pain meds, that i don’t think anyone really has an overview of exactly what does what any more. i was discharged from secondary services (i live in an area where the Trust is in special measures for being so utterly incompetent that people were dying) and am trying to get a psychiatrist appointment to discuss all my meds, and the possibility of ECT and a depo injection as it’s hard to keep track of everything.

on addition to alllll of this, my thyroid is currently trying to kill me (nodules upon nodules, squishing my trachea) and the thyroid consultant is concerned that removing it, which will possibly involve a major surgery as it’s also growing down into my chest cavity) might cause long term psychosis. but i don’t think they can leave it, as my quality of life is dreadful as i’m permanently exhausted and am beginning to suffer with sleep apnoea, so it’s just one more thing to worry about.

if i were a horse, they’d have shot me long ago! but, i keep on trucking.

i hope you can get your medications to a level where they help you. it seems to be the luck of the draw, and i often wonder why we, the patients, have to try so hard to find something that simply makes life bearable.

I take quetiapine because there's now a theory that people with classic depressive symptoms who have close relatives with bipolar have different brain chemistry to other depressives. It's called bipolar type 2.

I have never had psychotic symptoms but my DF and one of my brothers have bipolar so my psychiatrist prescribed quetiapine and an antidepressant. My brother also takes quetiapine but a higher dose.

@Prawnofthepatriarchy This makes sense as my dad and my grandad (his father) both had the diagnosis of Bipolar.

I’m on 300mg quetiapine extended release alongside 45mg of mirtazapine for reoccurring depression. Not finding neither very helpful still severely depressed. I have the odd good week where I feel it’s lifting then crash back down again.