Quetiapine.

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I am seeing my psychiatrist on Tuesday the 27th. Last week she gave me the choice of "stay on olanzapine" or "go on quetiapine". Olanzapine has really stopped working in multiple ways. So I will choose "go on quetiapine". I have tried almost all of the second-generation antipsychotics so quetiapine is the one left over.

I am being changed not only because of my psychosis (which tbh is not severe atm but I still get increased voices and I've been experiencing more "strange thoughts"), but also my mood swings and my autism has gone out of control.

I am trying hard with support workers and therapy to reduce the meltdowns, self injurous behaviour, nonverbal episodes and challenging behaviour. But I've got worse as opposed to better. I've bitten holes into my arms and my dad fears to take me out (he's in the country for 9 days).

My question is: has anyone got any experiences of quetiapine they'd like to share?

I know it is very sedating but I need that, I am constantly on edge, often buzzing or screaming and I can't sleep much at all.

I take it, but only for insomnia as an off-label use, so I take a small amount. It works really well for that (for me anyway). I haven't really had any bad side effects. For the first week I had some issues with dry mouth, sore throat and stomach pains, but that's gone now. It also causes weight gain (as a result of increased appetite), but for me that's a good thing. I haven't actually gained any weight, as my problem has always been not eating enough. Plus I'm not taking a lot to begin with, so I haven't noticed a huge difference in my appetite.

I'm not sure how much this would apply to you though, as I'm only taking 50 mg per night. For psychosis and bipolar disorders the dosage is significantly higher, so the side effects might be different.

I started taking it at a low dose several weeks ago for insomnia, the first night was really weird but it was OK after that, though some of the side effects I get can be very annoying, it's harder to cope with hot weather and if I wake up before I've had enough sleep, laying down trying to go back to sleep for longer in the morning can be really hard because of aggravating muscle tension in my limbs and neck. Ugh it just feels really gross so I make sure I do what I can to sleep in as long as possible and stay cool enough.
Mentally speaking, it took a while to settle in but I've definitely noticed that I'm more stable, even if it's just a byproduct of sleeping better.
I'm pleasantly surprised actually, I still get the same depressing and anxious thoughts but I find I'm much more able to choose to stop going down that path and think about other things for a while, in fact I haven't had a full scale meltdown since I've been taking them!
Not Everyone likes this medication so it took my doctor a long time to convince me to try if out so I think if may be worth trying for you, because it could potentially help a lot.

Before I went on Zyprexa, I took Seroquel for a few weeks, but it made me feel like a walking zombie through the day - a walking zombie with a dry mouth, involuntary muscle twitches and the inability to sit still even though I was too fatigued to move.

Yeah, it made me sleep okay, but no matter how much sleep I got, it felt like it was never enough.

I'm taking Zyprexa and Avanza now and I don't notice anything different (I have been taking both for three months now) but my family said they have noticed a positive difference, but they won't elaborate further.

I only keep on taking my meds because the withdrawals are pretty nasty if I don't. *sigh*

I've taken Seroquel, but never been prescribed it. I got it from a friend whose doctor gave it to him for some psych problems but he didn't like taking it and wouldn't take it. It helped me sleep a little bit but it wasn't anywhere near as good as Ambien or one of the benzos for that. I don't know what it would do for psychosis because I've never had that. I think he had some kind of psychosis because he would have these wild mood swings, wild delusions, violent outbursts, drank a lot, and had just got home from war.

While it did help me sleep sometimes, it gave me a really bad fuzzy "hangover" type feeling the next day. It was aweful. However, if I had a serious problem that it would help, I'd be willing to deal with the hangover feeling. That probably fades away once your body gets used to it, I don't know.

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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

I take it for mood and anxiety. It works for me. Made me very sleepy when I first started - slept in the car on the way to school, then slept through two lessons in the library.

Started to take it in the evenings only at double the dose (so it would be normal dose by day). Really helped me get to sleep! Now it doesn't make me noticeably tired.