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Hi everyone! :)

I am quitting seroquel, and I was wondering if you could help me. I was put on 1200 mg's nightly dose; for about a year. I am currently taking 600 mg nightly; trying to taper off this medication so i can regain my ability to feel emotions again. I feel like a zombie. In the beginning it helped me by stabilizing my mood, and helping me sleep. I discovered that the numbing affect, and other side affects like weight gain, and acid reflux was something I don't like at all. I want to be natural, and healthy. I am concerned with the diabetes threat also. I was hoping to transcend medications; and only do vitamins, good diet, exercise, etc.. 

Questions: 
1) How long does my brain take to feel emotions again after I stop this medication ? I am wondering if being on it for such a long time has permanently affected my brains ability to return to natural functionality. Any insight you can give based on your experience would be very helpful. 

2) Can a person's dopamine, and serotonin receptors become unblocked after quitting ? How long does the detox take ? 

Thanks everyone for your input.

9 Responses
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Avatar universal
You shouldn't be quitting by yourself.  If you really hate it, you can point out to your doctor that you don't have to take anything you don't want to, and that you'd rather have a proper schedule.  Stopping too quickly could cause a flare up in symptoms.  1200 mg is actually higher than the recommended max dose, which is 800 mg/day, unless you're taking something else that speeds up its metabolism.  Another drug might work better for you without feeling so zombifying.  I've heard a lot of people say that Abilify was brightening for them, really lifting their moods while stabilizing, although of course individual results always vary.  It also tends to be weight neutral.  If you're bipolar, going off medication entirely is a really bad idea in over 99% of cases.  You can monitor things like blood sugar and lipid levels--metabolic problems don't appear overnight.  You could also consider one of the anticonvulsant mood stabilizers, like lamotrigine (you might need something else anti-manic with this), carbemazepine, or one of the valproates (but those tend to cause weight gain).  Lithium is also an option, although you'd have to watch thyroid and kidney function.  Again, those issues don't appear overnight.  

Meds will be out of your blood in 4-5 half lives of the drug.  In the case of Seroquel, the half life is 6 hours, so it actually goes out pretty quickly.  Some may remain bound to tissues, so it can take days to months to fully get rid of a drug, but the levels are likely to be too low to notice, and with such a short half life and only moderate lipid solubility, I don't think Seroquel will hang around for too long.  Some people think that this effect can cause drug interactions, but I don't know how much evidence there is for this.  Receptors will adapt over time, but I don't know how fast the process is.  The actual blockade will stop when the drug is out of your blood, but certain receptors may have been upregulated or downregulated (i.e. expressing more or fewer of them) while taking it, but your body will adjust in time.  A proper titration will probably help prevent this from being a problem.  

Again, get your doctor in on this.  Going completely med free can be quite dangerous, especially if you tend to get full blown mania--one episode can really wreck your life if you're unlucky.  Depression can screw things up too.  And monkeying with your own meds without a doctor's permission is not a great idea.  
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
i gained 100 pounds on that med.lucky i stopped. Lost 110 pounds. I was put on this for just sleep. now on lithium lacteal
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
My experience with seroguil w/d has been horrendous. I was rx'd 200 mg at bedtime for insomnia.  I was going through a suboxen and Xanax withdrawal and was rx'd seroguil for sleep. Now that I'm over the w/d from the suboxen/xanax, I wanted to stop the seroguil. I was on it about 3 mths and stopped cold turkey. I'm experiencing awful w/d symptoms.  Flu symptoms, lethargy, insomnia, anxiety, can't eat. How long will this last. I didn't feel this bad coming off meds that they gave me the seroguil to help! I'm constantly yawning, watery eyes, runny nose, sweaty. Please someone give some advice as to help alleviate some of the symptoms or a time line as to when I can expect some relief. Thank you.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
read medical medium and find out that bipolar is caused by heavy metals
Helpful - 0
8520825 tn?1398511460
Thank you to the both of you for sharing information with me. I appreciate your help, and have learned a lot from these posts. I've found what I was seeking, and for that I am very grateful.
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
I am going through the withdrawal symptoms of coming off of the drug Quetiapine. Seroquel is a marketing name. I was originally on 100mg three times a day. I went through a very abrupt decrease to 50mg three times a day immediately for three weeks at that level. After that it decreased 25mg per day each week. Starting by removing the first 25mg in the morning. Then the next week 25mg middle of day. Finally 25 mg in the evening. I took a break when it made it to 75mg a day, 25mg three times a day, for three weeks to let everything settle. I'm now on only 25mg a day in the evening. Next week I'll be completely off of it completely. I have gone through varying stages of changes during this process. I would be happy to discuss anything about it. Please let me know.
Avatar universal
Psych is not the only branch of medicine lacking definitive tests.  There are a variety of diagnoses of exlusion, like Meniere's disease, where you have to rely on a cluster of symptoms and the ruling out of other potential causes (which might be done by blood or imaging techniques).  Likewise, blood tests, EEGs, and MRIs can be used to distinguish traumatic, metabolic, epileptic, or neoplastic (to name a few) causes of psych symptoms.  There is now a blood test for fibromyalgia, but it's not 100% accurate, and fibro was a diagnosis based on symptoms (including pain on palpation of certain points, but that's still subjective).  

@OP: Sorry about that; many people do go off their drugs on their own, and you didn't mention otherwise, so I assumed.  I'm glad you're working with your doctor.

I would say that because individual experience is so variable, what happened to other people might not be very useful to you to predict your experience.  And personal experience is just that--personal.  Your doctor may not have taken the drug herself, but she's probably seen more than one person go on an back off it again, which means she's seen more than just an individual experience.  

For medication specific questions, I really like the site crazymeds.us.  It's a med specific site, and has forums grouped by drug, where you can find lots of people who have taken a particular drug.  There is also a great wiki with a number of drugs with a plain English explanation of what they're used for, side effects, usual titration schedule, etc.  
Helpful - 0
574118 tn?1305135284
seroquel is not to be fideled with. i hate it although i take 50mg it has side effects but no drug is optimum all have bad adverse effects.

i wish i can get rid of it but as soon as i reduce the dose i get elated and my experience of mania is horrible. 1200 i never heard anything like this dose before. even 600 is large, no wonder you feel zombie. although i congratulate you for your capability to reduce the dose. i failed to it from 100 to 50 it took me 2 years to do so because as soon as i reduce by 12.5 i go up very quickly so i go back up my dose.

about cataract, tryglycerides, diabetes, etc... (all antipsychotics do the same) changing to other drug will bring other side effects. Anonymous suggested abilify it brings anxiety yet no weight gain usually, although some put on weight on abilify. people react differently, so i found futile when they ask here which drug is best. the optimum is to cut off all drugs but this is not a solution because it harms more.

sometimes i feel that answering posts won't solve anything it only makes you share your pain with others. i also lost confidence in pdocs they know nothing, they sit with you a few minutes, diagnose you and make you try a certain drug (trial and error) it's the only branch in medicine with no blood tests or MRI etc...although they say psych illness is psychological i don't believe it it's a kind of imbalance somewhere it's mainly neurological but shrinks make a good living out of it.

good luck.

my advise if you succeeded in lowering your dose as much as you can it's good PROVIDED it's done through very LOONG period and taper extremely slow and watch yourself carefully
Helpful - 0
8520825 tn?1398511460
Please share your Seroquel experiences with me. I'd really appreciate it. :)
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
I'm using Seroquel to help me to sleep. 25mg with trazodone 100mg. It helps. Even though the half-life is only 6 hours I feel a bit light-headed in the morning.
8520825 tn?1398511460
Dear Anonymous,

I want to thank you for replying to me, as well as for your feedback.

I have been tapering off for the last four months. I went from 1200 mg down to 600 mg slowly with the help and supervision of my doctor. I went down by 50 mg per week until my current dose of 600 mg's. In the next few months i will be completely off this medication. The thing is my psychiatrist has never taken seroquel herself so how can she tell me based on personal experience what life would be like after this medication is no longer used.

I was hoping to find others who have personal experience with this medication, and have successfully quit.

Helpful - 0
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