Quetiapine effects

[Zoink]

Hi

I've asked this before but I think my OP was confusing. I have three questions:

1. How long did it take to have an effect? This is not including the sedative effect which works straight away when I take them at night.

2. How did you feel when you first took them? Did you feel worse before you felt better like with anti-depressants?

3. What did you feel whilst they were kicking in?

I take them for Bipolar B. I have ups & downs and get a sort of rage. I am on Day 11 of starting them and yesterday I felt angry, very short tempered and down & so far today I feel the same.

I saw this online that the sedative effect will happen straightaway but the other effect can take up to 6 weeks.

I am not asking about upping the dose etc. It is just those three questions I'd like to focus on.

I had this for dysthymia, combined with venlafaxine. I found that it began to work after a couple of weeks. Even a low dose made me really sleepy and I worked out that I did not begin to feel bright and alert again until about 16 hours after taking it. So if I took it at 10pm I would still be dopey until 2pm next day. It also made me crave sweet stuff and carbs uncontrollably. In the end I had to stop taking it because I was too dopey at work and felt bloated.

Hi @Zoink. I've been off and on quietiapine (a low dose) a couple of times for severe depression. Its hard to say exactly when they started having an effect for me, but relatively quickly compared to antidepressants, within a fortnight I think. I didn't feel worse before I feel better in terms of emotions, but they do knock me out particularly hard when I first go back on them. For me when they have kicked in I find certain negative irrational thoughts significantly decrease in frequency, and lose some of their strength even when they do happen (like I can distract myself or something rather than engaging in them a lot easier). For me the main downside of being on them is I can easily sleep 14/15 hours a night on them, and if I sleep less I feel a kind of combo of stoned and exhausted half the day, which doesn't lend itself overly well to functioning in the real world! I've not felt any anger on them, though that's not something I'm particularly prone to. Hope they work out for you, or you find something that does!

I’ve been on slow release quatiapine for over 2 months now and I feel much better. It’s taken a while but it’s a good medicine for bipolar (type 1) and it works really well for me on both phases of the illness (depression and mania). I have to take it at 6/7pm otherwise I won’t wake up for work. Give it time hopefully you’ll be okay.

I take it for bipolar. I started on 150mg and it made me worse. We added in an antidepressant but after 3 months it sent my mood high. I was taken off the antidepressants and the quetiapine was increased to 300mg. From here the improvement was quite quick within a few weeks.

I have been on it since 2012 and for me I need 300-400mg to stay stable and 600-700mg to treat and episode. If it is going to treat the episode I see an improvement within 2 weeks and a big improvement by 6 weeks. Once I have been stable for 6-12 months I am usually able to go back down to 300-400 mg.

I'm in a severe depressive episode at the moment and I didn't see an improvement with the higher dose so we have had to add in other meds.

I find it works quicker on high moods than it does low moods. It helps me get better quality sleep so that is usually the bit I notice first and then it starts to clear my thoughts (once the initial sedation wears off) and I'm able to make more rational decisions to support myself through the episode.

It can take a bit of trial and error to find the dose that will work for you. If you are starting at quite a low dose - which is common don't fret too much about not seeing an immediate improvement it might take a couple of increases to get to the right dose for you.