Quetiapine (Seroquel) for insomnia and severe depression

[Nietz93]

Hello everyone,
My psychiatrist has prescribed me Venlafaxine 150mg XL + Quetiapine 50mg XL the quetiapine is for insomnia and to treat resistant depression.
Has anyone ever taken Quetiapine alone for depression or in addition to another antidepressant? If so, what was your experience with it?
Thanks

Awful stuff.
Don’t get me wrong, I needed something, I was actively suicidal and getting no sleep. However, it totally zombified me, and was very addictive. I was also on AD’s.

I believe they can prescribe Dariodorexant for sleeping, I’ve not been on that so no idea what the effects of that were, but I know the GP was very happy when I said I’d weaned myself off Quetiapine.

So sorry you are suffering. I hope things improve for you soon

Hey. Ive been on Quetiapine for a few years for OCD. Most of the time I'm on a low dose of 25mg which I find fine.
However a couple of years ago I had a big relapse and was quite depressed aswell and my Quetiapine was increased to 150/200mg.
At this dose I was pretty much a walking zombie. X

I was on Quetiapine for misdiagnosed bipolar for a number of years (7 ish?) and you will absolutely sleep. I was started on something like 100mg and slept 18 hours a day for months, I imagine a half dose won’t be so bad. It will absolutely make you sleep but you might not feel super alert in the day either. I was on lithium with it so can’t say how it affected my mood alone (I actually had ADHD not bipolar so the whole thing was wrong anyway)

I took 50mg Quetiapine along with 40mg Citalopram for treatment resistant depression. The Quetiapine was like a miracle drug for stopping the insomnia. I took it an hour before bed and I was out like a light. It did make me tired during the day though. I stopped it because I was worried about the potential weight gain and the fact that it can mess with your metabolism permanently.
Give it a try OP especially if you are sleep deprived. The good thing is that it works immediately unlike AD which take weeks/months

That sounds awful! Hopefully 50mg will be enough for my depression and insomnia

I'm glad to hear it helped you with insomnia. Unfortunately I've tried so many things for insomnia but none of them worked so this is my last resort. I know about the potential weight gain, I will just have to be more careful about what I eat and perhaps exercise a bit more

I take quetiapine for anxiety and insomnia but even 25mg is too strong, I have a quarter of a tablet at 8pm and i'm knocked out until 9am next day. I am very sensitive to it but it has also caused high prolactin levels so I'm being monitored closely.

I take Sertraline 150mg in the morning and 75mg of quetiapine around 8.30/9pm. It's made a huge difference to me and my MH. I started off on 25mg while withdrawing from Tramadol, upped to 50mg after 4 weeks and 75mg in October 2024. I don't feel drowsy at all in the morning.
I have recently started taking Amitriptyline for nerve pain in the evening and that assists in sleep too.
Give it a go, make sure you take it early enough and you are in bed within the hour. When I first started it, if I wasnt settled and sleeping within the hour I couldn't string a sentence together or keep my eyes open 😂
Good luck, everyone is different but it has changed my life for the better.
X

Does it help with anxiety?
This is my first night of Quetiapine 50mg XL and I took at 10 pm, maybe it's a bit too late and tomorrow I'll be like a zombie. In that case, tomorrow night I will take a bit earlier, maybe around 8.30/9pm. My psychiatrist said to take it empty stomach, 2 hours after food

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm really glad to hear it has improved your MH. I really hope it does the same for me! This is my first night of Quetiapine and I took it at 10 pm, perhaps a bit too late and tomorrow and I'll be like a zombie. In that case I'll try to take it a bit earlier around 8.30/9 pm

Hopefully you will be okay, maybe a tad groggy at first but I really hope it helps you. Xx

I took it an hour and 20 minutes ago but I still haven't fallen asleep yet. How long does it usually take? My psychiatrist said between 30-60 minutes. Maybe the dose it's too low. I'll give it a few days and if it doesn't improve I'll contact my psychiatrist again

I may be wrong but if your on Quetiapine XL it's the extended release one so the medication is released slowly in your system.
The quetiapine I take is instant release.

UPDATE

Tonight it was the first time I took quetiapine 50mg XL. It's been an hour and a half and I'm still awake. I wonder how long it takes to fall asleep. Or perhaps the dose It's just too low for me

This means that it may take longer to make me fall asleep?

I have just read the following:
Prolonged release quetiapine, used for insomnia, usually induces drowsiness within a few hours of taking it, reaching peak plasma levels in about 3 hours, with sedative effects that can persist until morning. It is essential to adhere to the dosage prescribed by your doctor, as effectiveness is dose-dependent.

This means tomorrow I should try to take it a bit earlier than 10pm. Maybe around 8, so I will be sleepy by 11 pm hopefully

Yes I would say take it a bit earlier
It was fabulous for me , even after I stopped taking it my insomnia was fine again and I am much better falling asleep even a decade later than I ever was before I had it.
Make sure you have a sensible but not obsessive sleep routine as well- so no bright lights etc and maybe read a relaxing book or something

I have been on quetiapine since 2012 for bipolar. Most of the time it is enough to manage my moods on alone. I believe at the low doses <100mg it's more of a sedative, you might find you need a slightly higher dose of 150+mg for the antidepressant qualities.

The immediate release will generally make you sedated and sleepy within an hour. The extended release is much longer.
You need to take it on an empty stomach 2h after food 1h before so it doesn't get absorbed too quickly. It takes 3-6 h to be effective. I used to take mine at 8.30 and go to bed at 10. It is no longer sedating for me and I take it at 9 and I can stay awake until midnight without feeling groggy (feed my 4mo not insomnia). If I forget to take it, it is about 3 am that I wake up alert which is about 6h after I should have taken and my body now notices that I haven't had it.

I slept fabulously last night! What a relief 😃 but yeah, tonight I'll take it around 8 pm so I'll be able to go to sleep around 11 pm

Quetiapine is the worst drug withdrawal I’ve ever had in my entire life and I’m an ex cocaine addict 😂🤷🏼‍♀️. I spent 4 -5 years on it and it was shocking. I didn’t feel like I was falling asleep, I felt like I was being pulled down into the mattress and my heart raced stupidly fast. I felt like a had a 24/7 hangover. It caused 4 stone weight gain as it confuses your brain into thinking your blood sugar is low and so you eat even though it’s not low. And they didn’t warn me it’s also an anti histamine. When I came off it my family were on double time duty with scouring pads and body brushes as my entire body was covered in hives and that level of intense over all itchiness…..it was the worst thing ever. Wiser than gall stones. My skin was bleeding and split and I didn’t sleep in 4 days as my brain couldn’t turn off without the drug. 14 years on And my sleep is still chronically disturbed, worse than it ever was pre Q. But mine was for bipolar ( turned out I didn’t have bipolar. I was undiagnosed adhd and so the entire disaster was for nothing). Also, I have a very mild case of tardive dyskinesia from it too. Thanks very much to all the drs !!!

50mg XL is my starting dose, the psychiatrist wants to increase it in a couple of weeks. Thanks about the suggestion about timing. Tonight I'll take it much earlier so that I'll be able to fall asleep at around 11pm

Really pleased for you!

Hi, today I took quetiapine 50mg XL at 7.50 pm, literally 10 minutes ago. Let's see if I'll be able to get to bed at 11 am

So I was on the max dose of quitiapine for many years, as I was misdiagnosed and medicated for bipolar.

For me it was very very heavily sedating. I struggled a lot with having any energy to basically do anything and tbh I don't feel it helped with the depression so much. I will say due to the sedation it did at least help with the insomnia. I'd say of every medication I've been on (and believe me when I say I've worked my way through what feels like half a bloody pharmacy 😭) it was one of the lesser effective ones.

But please take i to account we are all different and will have our own experience. I'm sure for many people it works great 🙂

Wow I had a very similar experience!

Did you find once you were diagnosed with ADHD, and if you are medicated, that it helped? I've found my depression and anxiety symptoms have lessened since diagnosis and being medicated. As smy psych told me a huge part of depression/anxiety was down to having undiagnosed adhd xx