Seroquel

14 Comments & Reviews: Seroquel

1. I took Seroquel starting in an eating disorders hospital at 20 years old. It helped with bipolar, anorexia, and OCD/anxiety. I would say it was a very good drug, however, after a year I requested to come off of it because of weight gain (naturally, an anorexic would say that) as well as overly sedation. I was surprised how helpful this drug was for OCD as adjunctive treatment.

2. I have been taking Seroquel – 50mg’s for a little over a year for chronic insomnia, and anxiety. It works very well, and I can finally sleep through the night. It also has helped with a few other issues like PTSD, and just feeling better about myself. I do have to take it a few hours before I want to go to sleep, and I find that if I stay hydrated, it works better. I love that my self-esteem has improved with the Seroquel, and I’m no longer wide awake at 3AM. The things that bother me about Seroquel is the heat really bothers me, and I’ve put on 20 pounds. I can deal with that, in comparison to what I would feel like without it. The best thing about Seroquel for me is, when on vacation with our friends, I can finally get up at 6AM with everyone else, and I don’t feel like everyone it talking about me/picking on me/putting me down any longer.

3. My now 14 yo daughter started taking Seroquel 25 mg at night about 3 months ago.
   The first month, seroquel immediately helped her sleep at night. It also helped with her mood swings which were bad.
   Now going into the 4th month, the dose doesn’t make her sleepy anymore. It gives her dry mouth (which wakes her up at night) and vivid dreams. Next check up will involve blood work. It was effective at first, but now I see mainly the side effects. The psy wanted to up the dose, but I am not ok with that. Thank you for sharing your experiences. It helps me understand the drug better.

4. Seroquel did not help my 8-year-old. I do believe a lot of the issues were due to the wrong ADHD meds. We went from Vyvanse to Concerta and now Focalin. The first two caused the symptoms you listed. We stopped Seroquel before changing to Focalin. We also started a low dose of Abilify. We hope to stop the Abilify this summer with no school to see if necessary.
   I do believe there is a lot more than meds to help your child adjust. Parenting, as we knew it, is out the window. We make sure he gets plenty of protein in the morning, gets a good night rest (melatonin helps), wakes up quietly, sugar is way limited, plenty of exercise, no quick changes to routine/schedule, etc.

5. My 7-year-old grandson has been on meds for ADHD since he was 3. We started with clonidine at that age because he wasn’t sleeping at all. He is currently in 1st grade and is on Strattera. This helps somewhat with focus, but he is still behind in academics. His behavior at home is the real problem, he has continually been on clonidine, but it is not enough to keep his meltdowns and aggression in check. We have tried many different meds. After much discussion with his psychiatrist, we just started him on Seroquel yesterday along with his Strattera, and weaning him off the clonidine. He is on 25mg daily, half in the morning and half in the afternoon. He was very agitated and aggressive all day. Hitting and kicking. This evening he had a major meltdown over a minor incident that lasted 40 minutes, I had to restrain him to keep him from biting, and hurting myself and the other children in the house.

6. My son is turning 10 and has been on Seroquel for several months. He is doing fairly well. We have had many ups and downs in trying to deal medically with his aggression issues. This is his third bi-polar med and he has been on several different ADHD meds as well. Currently he is on Vyvanse and Seroquel. The only side effect has been weight gain – which we believe he is especially vulnerable too as he had to be taken off Abilify due to weight gain. But he has responded well in terms of his ability to control his emotions as a result of the drug. The drug does seem to make my child very hungry at night (since he takes the does at night).

7. My 10 year old has been taking Seroquel for over a year now. It has helped him tremendously. He has ADHD, which is controlled with Vyvanse. He started the Seroquel to help with aggression and severe anxiety. We have had great benefits from it. At one point, he was taking 200mg 3 times a day; we were able to decrease to 200mg twice daily. I was originally worried about the dose (I work in healthcare, and see adults on 25mg, 50mg doses), but the doc explained that children are “fast metabolizers” so they need higher doses than adults.
   It has not been thoroughly studied in children, but honestly, most meds have not. I just know that my son is better able to function and be happy.

8. My son (age 7) also took Seroquel. He was previously taking Risperdone. His aggressive behaviors. The consideration was given that he may have bipolar disorder. He was prescribed Seroquel.
   He had a very bad reaction to the Seroquel—incoherent speech, terror. He would wake up in the middle of the night screaming at the top of his lungs banging on doors, for no apparent reason. My son’s behavior was typically upsetting to other people, but on the Seroquel he frightened ME. I immediately stopped giving him the drug, and the extreme behaviors disappeared.

9. I was diagnosed a couple of months ago with ADHD. But at same time was also give RX of a mood disorder. I was put on Seroquel first (at 150 mg) taken at 7 p.m. It’s not as sedating as first few weeks, but I’m definitely now in bed by 10 p.m. Wow, that sure helps with the “surfing the internet until 2 a.m. and getting over stimulated” part. Then she added the Focalin to treat ADHD. Take that 3x daily (5mg each).

   I just saw my doctor today and told her that I didn’t feel optimal. I’ve still had bouts of depression, anger, and anxiety. She was going to up my dosage of Seroquel. But I told her that was part of the problem. I’m feeling “sedated” for most of the morning. So we are switching to Abilify. I’m also going back up from my Paxil dose of 10 mg to 20 mg. I take 20 mg of Focalin in the am for my ADHD.

   I got a little “lecture” from my dr. because I took that 2.5 mg of Abilify just that first night then just stuck with the lower dose of the Seroquel (100 mg). I’m glad I decided not to take it. Just lowering the Seroquel by 50 mg made a huge difference. I’m not so sedated feeling and upping my Paxil to 20 mg from 10 also seems to be helping the equation.

10. My son has had add for the last couple of years. It started with inappropriate hitting. After the diagnoses and started the Concerta it went away. Then he was diagnosed with depression an started Seroquel. Now the nightmare started he has been raiding the refrigerator in the middle of the night.

11. I am 53, ADHD and BP2. Just started Seroquel XR and take it at 7 PM and then Lamictal at bedtime, both these meds help the depression (I was taken off Prozac) the BP2 and the PLMD (Periodic Limb Movement Disorder). I take Vyvanse for the ADHD and Seroquel XR at night to help with depression that goes with the BP~2. I do go to a psychiatrist and she takes care of these meds over my PCP.

12. I also don’t get tired until 3 or 4 a.m. every night! I hate going to bed because I have to force myself to long hours of trying to “be still and relax”. And I hate going to bed because I never get enough sleep. I have to slam myself with a medicinal hammer every night (100 mg of Seroquel), which makes me tired after waiting for two hours!

13. I remember being put on Seroquel when I was very depressed years ago (before I quit drinking booze – so like when I was 20) and I hated it. I gained like 40lbs in 6 weeks and felt drowsy all the time.

14. I was having trouble staying asleep at night. I took Seroquel at night and quickly realized I couldn’t keep my eyes open more than 15 minutes if I wanted to, where before, I could “override” any medication. Also, I would sleep the entire night so hard that one minute my head hit the pillow and the next minute, I was waking up 8 full hours later. The side effect though was that if I took it too late, my brain would feel like cotton for about the first hour and a half of the day. Not cool for working a 9 to 5 job that took me an hour to get to. So I learned to take it at 9 pm, would be in bed no later than 9:30 pm and be fairly well rested by the morning. That was probably the best time of my life to finally have a regulated sleep schedule.