Seroquel symptoms and conditions

I only took Zyprexa once every week b/c of severe insomnia and sometimes 2x's a months w/ 3 days intervals to catch up on sleep. I was doing fine just eating ridiculously healthy and exercising but the hunger came and I could no longer sleep because it was so severe I would wake up in the night ravished and couldn't sleep until I ate so I stopped the zyprexa, which I wasn't even taking much in the first place!! I've been off for a week and I would like to know from those who went off of it, how long does it take for the hunger to back to normal? They want to try seroquel but I'm scared that will keep it going, so would like to get it back to normal before trying something else. Need sleep! last semester of school, need to pass. Thank you. BTW, works great for sleep, did save my life in that aspect.

Topamax is off label for weight loss. I was put on it after gaining about 35lbs from Seroquel. It took the weight off like it was supposed to. My dose has recently been stepped down because I'm back at my normal weight of 135 (I'm 5'11").

When I first started taking Topamax diet soda and other sugary things tasted really strange, which my doctor says he's never experienced before. I also had a numbness and tingling in my face and hands for about an hour or so after taking the pill for a while.

One more thing that I noticed about this drug is that while on it my vision went from perfect to needing to be corrected by glasses. I have read a few things about vision problems associated with Topamax but I am not sure if it caused my nearsightedness or not.

Thanks for letting me share my thoughts.
M.

I was prescribed Lisinopril by my physician about six months ago. Everything was OK until about two weeks ago when I developed a HORRIBLE skin red, flaky, itching skin rash. This first appeared as heavy dandruff and was confined to my scalp, but letter moved to my neck, chest arms, back and legs. I am so grateful to have found this web site and I will discontinue this medication IMMEDIATELY!!! I will inform my doctor of these side effects and I will refuse to take this or any similar medication in the future. I have tried all sorts of shampoos, skin creams, cortisone ointments and such...it just keeps getting worse. I am hoping that getting off of this medication will improve things. Please let me know if you have had a similar experience with this medication.

By: T

I have been on seroquel for 5 years now. Of course I gained weight, but I used healthy diet and exercise to maintain a healthy weight. However, despite all that my cholesterol is at 260. The doctor tried to say it wasn't Seroquel, but I know it is. I have weened myself off over the past few weeks and it has now been 4 days without it. I am constantly nauseous, cannot sleep and at this point am scared to death because I remember how horrifying getting off Effexor was. Can anyone tell me if this gets any better?

Will turn you into an emotionless, lethargic, drunk, apathetic zombie that has no more creative or human spark than a turnip does. Throw this crap in the garbage - NOW! I was prescribed this devil spawn drug from a PAIN MANAGEMENT doctor who told me it would help potentiate the Tylenol 3's he gave me. Drink a case of whiskey and smoke a crack rock the size of a buick and you'll essentially reach the point I was at after one of these pills. I started saying crazy things to my Girlfriend, started rearranging the refrigerator, slept for 10 hours (and I normally only sleep 4-6 hours) and woke up with these thoughts in my head like "What am I doing with my life? Nothing is going right, Everything I touch turns to hell". By about 10:30 in the morning at work, it finally started coming out of me and I started waking up and realized just how bad it was. DO NOT take this medication unless you are so severely psychotic that you simply can't make yourself stop killing squirrels. Why the hell a DOCTOR would prescribe this evil in pill form for Pain Management is so far beyond me, it's like wiping before you poop, just don't make no sense.

Hi all, I'm hoping someone here with Seroquel-experience can help us with some information. My wife has been on Seroquel for approximately 5 weeks (ramping up to 200mg per day during the first 10 days, approximately). After 4 weeks, the severe breathing problems started. Physicians have verified the oxygen level in her blood to be excellent, her lungs and heart are in perfect shape, she has no fever and no indication of bacteria-infections. All indications are that this is caused by the Seroquel. She explains the intense sensation as drowning, almost passing out while gasping for air. She's feeling very dizzy, probably due to breathing too much as a result. Occasionally her breathing is not so deep, but more like hyper-ventilation. The problem became unbearable (and my wife endures a lot) after approximately 1 week, so 5 weeks into the Seroquel scheme she quit cold-turkey two days ago. The breathing problems are still the same. We are hoping someone could tell us how much time these breathing problems can be expected to remain, as I've googled my eyes out without finding any information on this. A week? - Two weeks? -Even more? - please respond, and in advance, thank you for your help!

I've been on 200 mg Lamictal for 2 months now, after 4 month titration up from 25mg; Going off Lithium 900mg titration to 450mg this week. Since 1st day of lower Lithium, all the common Lamictal symptoms went from mild to extreme. Whole body muscle aches (like 24 hours after a heavy weightlifting workout) worse in neck & back/shoulders/calves, bad headaches, swelling in hands & feet, extreme blurred vision, loss of memory, halted speech while trying to figure out what to say, fuzzy. I called the Clinic to simply ask which NSAID (aspirin? ibuprofen? Excedrin? naproxin?) to use to manage the pain. They all freaked and made me come in for a blood test to check Lithium levels. I explained I wasn't "overly" concerned about it at this point, but just looking for a recommendation, and that they may be over-reacting (even though I did appreciate their concern). I also reminded them that I had just **decreased** Lithium when it happened, so I wasn't having a Lithium Toxic attack (I'm well-versed in that, having been on Lithium for 7 years). It didn't do much good to tell them I thought their diagnosis was a little off. I'll find out the blood test results today, but I'm pretty sure I know what they'll be. They also wanted me to see my PCP since it could be something else. Again, the problem was a ramp-up of existing symptoms the next morning after I lowered Lithium (the only change), so I'm conviced everything centers around that. I think they're a little inexperienced with this med. (Lamictal/Lamotrigine) and if they'd just read this blog they'd probably learn a lot. They had never heard of the muscle ache side effect. Pretty hard to believe after reading all of your comments! My theory is that Lithium was somehow holding back the side-effects of Lamictal and now they're expressing themselves more fully. I haven't read anything like this on any internet discussion, so maybe my body is very different. But maybe my experience will give someone else some insight in a similar situation.
I might also mention something that happened to me I have only seen (kinda) in one other "blog" about follicle (sweat gland) cysts. Yeah, I definitely got the jawline acne starting at the Lamictal 50mg level & increasing at 100mg. But I also got my first ever "cyst" that concerned me and sent me to my dermatologist for the first time in 30 years (I'm 47 and saw the old guy when I had acne at 17!). It started as a blind pimple on my chest the week I increased Lamictal to 200mg (final dose), but didn't go away. It continued to grow (not diminish) over 4 weeks to 3/8 inch round/pink/solid/itchy/burn-when-rubbed. So off to the "Doctor" like my father used to do on a regular basis (I know I'm getting old now) and scalpel/pop/stitch it was out. But it was real, not my imagination or hypocondria, and the timing of its appearance was right when Lamictal changed to full steam. Since acne appears to be a common effect with so many, it seems it's not unreasonable that this occurs occasionally as well to others. Let me be the 2nd to mention it. No "official" verification, but....
I'm not bagging on Lamictal, and have been very hopeful that this would be better than Lithium. It has eliminated the GastroIntestinal problems I had on Lithium, but I am getting discouraged that it has all the brand new symptoms that are discussed in this blog. Your "stuff" is real. I wish the Docs/Nurses/Case Workers would spend 5 minutes checking your comments out. It might bring about a better informed conversation than the shiny Glaxo flyers provide. That is all.

I lied about when I was taking risperdal. I took it from the end of 6th grade to before I started 11th grade. When I first started to take it, my weight sky rocketed. I went from being 140 to being 200 pounds in the first 6 months. After that, I went from being 200 to being 254 pounds in 10 months and then I reached my highest weight of 262 by March of 2003. It was a constant battle to get the weight off while being on risperdal and I stayed at 262 pounds until I started the 11th grade. That's when I was put on seroquel and taken off of risperdal. I am no longer taking risperdal or seroquel. I am now taking 5mg of Abilify and as of yesterday, I have lost 100 pounds in a year in a half. My weight today is 162. I use to wear a size 22-26 and today I wear a size 12-13/14. I love my new lifestyle of eating right and exercising and I never want to go back to being fat and lazy.

oh, my gosh! i have been on seroquel for six months. it has been horrible! sweating,dehydration, weight gain. the WORST has been costchondritis(severe chest pain), extreme hoarseness, and now muscle aches and tightness in my legs, arms and chest. my psych says he has heard of these side effects but has never seen them. am i poisoning myself?

My 86 year old father was recently started on Prednisone therapy for about 5 weeks to treat aggressive eczema. Since the initiation of the first does, he has had extreme mood changes. The worst one has been aggressiveness and irritability. He was on 40mg daily for 2 weeks and has been weaned down to 10mg this week and then 5mg next week. He also had sleep disturbances at night which kept the rest of us awake at night. Fortunately, the geriatrician gave him a prescription for Seroquel to calm him down. When he became angry, he had the strength of many men. He was paranoid and was verbally inappropriate. All I can say is that this is not my father and I have 2 more weeks left of drug therapy. With chronic renal failure, he is likely to carry the side effects a little longer. I wonder if he will swing to the other side of the pendulum when the prednisone is completely finished! In any case, his eczema is almost resolved and the itchiness is gone.

Its hard to say for sure what people will experience with any of these drugs, but its nice to hear from you all.

I am looking at whether geodon or lamictal is causing me these horride nightmares.

It seems both drugs can.

I started taking catapres, which is a blodd pressure med that has an off-label use to control nightmares which helped quite a bit...

but beware...missing a dose or two of caterpress will give you a rather bad day, as it suppresses adrenaline...which causes nightmares.....so imagine what happens when this suppression suddenly stops???? BAD.

i am tapering off geodon, i had no issue with it, but being seroquel is the only FDA approved anti-psychotic med to treat depression/aniexty....i will find out soon if the geodon was causing the nightmares or the lamictal. i will post later.

just know- for me..tappering off geodon is not going pleasant for me.

my doctor said the drug rep even mentioned it had a high side effect profile...

I have been on seroquel for about a year now. i have thunder thighs and a belly that i never used to have before. and the nightmares are horrible! I have very vivid dreams and wake up a lot in the night scared. i have even passed out once cause i got up too fast. i go to the bathroom a lot and am really really thirsty all the time, it is like i cant get enough to drink. i am scared to get off the med but want to start going to a lower dose. i don't sleep very well at all anymore.

wow! lamictal. im taking it for bipolar and it sounded so great due to the fact that it concentrates on the "lows" more than the "highs" and since i've been battling depression and suicidal thoughts since the 4th grade i thought this would be a wonderful addition to my medication. i would keep the seroquel at night and only take during the day "as needed" i was told there weren't very many side effects, just following starter kit exactly and i wont get that terrible rash. i didn't have access to a computer until a few days later after my first dose. so i didn't really get a chance to do much research. the first night i was surprised i felt a little loopy. didn't thank much of it. BUT several day late i felt i had the mind of a child. my speech slowed, my motor skills were off i felt heavy in body but light in the head. i could produce simple words. i knew the meanings of the words just had know actual word for them and would have to try to explain these words. stupid me started a new medication just before having to study for an exam( i was not expecting such a quick start of side effects) wow! i had no short term memory. could barely function. it was hard to even order a cup of coffee. of course there were other side effects such as pounding headaches and muscle soreness but they were nearly as annoying as the mental side effects. i started out at a low dose of just 25 mg. i had to stop taking it so my head would clear up and i could actually function just to take my exam. im not cleared up all the way yet but i do feel better. im sure my psych teacher will understand. ....but something im curious about is a weight limit issue. it really seems the side effects shouldn't have started so quickly and so intensely. i haven't been able to find anything about weigh a certain amount to take certain dosages. does any one know about this? should lower weights start even slower? im am a few pound below 100 and im thinking that might be why it hit so hard. considering its the weekend im not going to talk to my pdoc until maybe after my exam about stopping than restarting, but i do plan on restarting and giving it more time for the side effects to clear up

Hi everyone:

I'm on 200g of Lamictal. It has stabilized my mood a little bit, but I've gained 10 pounds and can't lose it despite working out 2 hours a day jogging and rowing. Granted, I do eat chocolate and fried foods sometimes but otherwise my diet is really good. My hair has thinned a lot (but I started with very fine hair - so it's not that huge of a difference). I've got a bald patch on the back of my head - and I'm female. I'm going to try to get extensions to make it look better.

I want to go off this desperately. I weaned myself of Lithium and Seroquel and this one is the last to go. wish me luck - because I am still suicidal and If I have to stay on this for the rest of my life, I would rather die and just get it over with.

My doctor prescribed seroquel to me for my severe anxiety. I took one b/f bed and woke up feeling horrible. I could barely get myself out of bed, I was foggy brained and lethargic. I thought it would pass so I went about my morning routine, when finally it hit me I couldn't take it any longer. And it resulted in a Full blown panic attack!!!! I took my clonazepam and eventually after sleeping for a bit, felt better.
I threw the pills in the garbage, I will NEVER take them again. I'm so scared to try anything new, b/c of what happened after taking seroquel. However I'm running out of options:(

I've been on seroquel for about 5years, ive been taking 500mg a night, it was prescribed after my doctor said i had schizo effective disorder when i was 19 years old i am now 24. And i feel my life is great execpt for one thing seroquel as it did help me to sleep, and calm me down at the time of my episode back when i was 19, now it has and is still ruining my life. I gained 50kgs which im not sure what that is in pounds probably about 105pounds-ish, i managed to drop about 25kilos but am forever gaining weight and it is a constant battle just to mantain my weight let alone lose the weight, but thats not the worst thing. I am constantly tired it doesn't matter how much i sleep i am still tired i have to go to bed at 9.30pm just so i can wake up at 8am to go to work, and i am so tired all day even after that much sleep and even if i sleep for 12,14 hours i am still tired my partner says that sleep rules my life and nothing is as important in my life than sleep, because im tired my concentration is so bad and my memory is worse, im just in another world and always out of it seroquel runs my life and i hate it im am so scared to come off it, but ive decided that im going to start to do it. and finally rid my life of, this disease which was supposed to help me but has completely taken away my hold on my life, i will not be ruled by seroquel anymore.

I have been on Lamictal for about five months for bipolar II. I has been increased slowly over these months and I am now up to 300 mg a day. I have a tendency to sometimes forget things but remembering numbers has never been a problem for me. In fact I can look at someone's tag number driving down the road and remember it for days. Phone numbers of people I have known for 20 years would stick and I wouldn't even have to call them on a regular basis to know the number. However, recently while trying to use my bank debit card at the store I was asked to enter my PIN number and totally could not remember. I tried it several times but it never came to me. I felt like a fool!. At this time, that was three days ago and I still cannot remember it!

This is very, very distressing to me. I feel like something has been wiped clean and that I will never get it back.

My Lamictal dose has been increased in the last couple of weeks and I thought maybe Lamictal or one of my other meds could be making this happen so I started researching and found this site where other people were complaining of memory loss while on Lamictal.

Headaches are another common side effect for me while on this med. It has really helped me emotionally and I need to know if the memory loss is just going to be a temporary thing and it will get back to normal or if I will be forgetting more and more over time. PLEASE HELP!!!

I began reading all of the blogs about Topamax and was surprised. I have been taking Topamax as a mood stabilizer since February 2007 at 200 mg at bed time (I probably sleep off the fatigue). The only side effect I am concerned about is the weight loss. Short term memory is not an issue. As a matter of fact, I am attend college and am managing a 3.85 gpa. I wish all of you the best of luck and hope you find something that works for you.

I honestly do not like taking Geodon. It can have negative effects on your heart. However I have been taking Geodon for at least six months now.

If I miss just one dose I start to feel extreme withdrawal. My withdrawal side effects are blurred vision, nausea, headache, and weakness.

And I've never had withdrawal from a medicine before. But for some reason it's really bad with Geodon.

I'm going to ask me Doctor about this.

I was taken off Seroquel immediately after having been taking it for several years. My psychiatric nurse said the dosage of Seroquel I was taking 100 mg at night was equivalent to a sleeping pill and not doing anything to stabilize my mood. I have only been taking 1 mg of Risperdal for 4 nights and I've been waking up suddenly at 4 a.m. My doctor told me to try taking 2 mg and again, I woke up at 4 a.m. for no reason. I always slept through the night with Seroquel but it was hard to wake up earlier than 9 a.m. I am able to go back to sleep for a few hours upon waking up at 4 a.m. and I only felt drugged when I increased the dosage to 2 mg. However, today (the 4th day) I feel very light hearted and dizzy. I don't know if it's the medication, sleep deprivation or getting off Seroquel so suddenly. I'm still having the same crazy dreams I had while on Seroquel, maybe worse. I have a feeling I'll gain weight on Risperdal unless I try hard not to snack.

My son is 10 years old and has been on 5 mg. singulair for 3 years. He has been getting frequent headaches,and is in the bathtub right now screaming with one! Also alot of depression.I just came upon this website accidently ,by searching the internet for what might be causing such headaches in a child. I was shocked at all of these symptoms! I am not going to give him any more singulair.But what is everyone doing to replace it and deal with their kids asthma problems? My son has had so may behavioral issues and being so unreasonable and always thinks were picking on him.To extremes! Very hars to deal with,constantly! TC

I have been on seroquel since july 2006.I take 200 to sleep at night, although in times of stress I add 25mgs pills as needed, and I also take effexor xr 37.5 and 75.First, the good effects- the combo got rid of the crazy highs and deep dark despairs of the lows.It got rid of the compulsions,the anxiety, social phobias lessened,unbidden harming thoughts, and the ocd rituals, and delusions...So it has been a real lifesaver for me.Now, on to the side effects.
I have gone from size 12 to size 16. thats a lot! I know its the seroquel, cause and effect. I got a foot infection from trying on shoes at the outlet mall-(never again) although I have never ever had one before, and i am 55.Guess what- I am still getting flareups of infection 2 1/2 years later! And isnt that a diabetes sign? The rest of the side effects are somewhat helped by drinking water. The side pains,occasional digestive issues, dry mouth, snoring, nonexistant sex life, confusion, memory issues,and the need to consume, and consume, food, are all there.Ive been existing on samples of these meds, but samples are no longer available, and the cheapest price for my meds as above is just over $800 per month.I cant possibly pay for thisI would be happy to take something else that didnt have side effects, and cost less, but what?

hated it. It was prescribed for insomnia and anxiety. Worked at first for the insomnia at 25 mg, then had to go up to 50 mg and barely worked then. My anxiety was worse, woke up with panic attacks. Vivid horrid nightmares. Spiraled into a severe, deep suicidal depression on it. Had hand tremors and restless legs. Currently weaning off. Never again!

I was diagnosed as being Bipolar a few days ago as Ive been on different types of anti depressants for years, I'm 23 now, and its NEVER helped me. The Doctor prescribed Seroquel and Lamictal. The Seroquel was supposed to be temporary until the Lamictal kicked in but after having HORRIBLE side effects from the Seroquel I quit it after only one night. Today was the first day of the Lamictal starter pack and besides feeling a little out of it and irregular heartbeat once in a while, thats all that I've noticed. But after reading all of your stories I really do not want to continue it. But the anti depressants don't help so I don't know what else to do. I'm not even sure that I am Bipolar. I do have self destructive habits like excessive shopping, stealing, partying etc. There are times when I'm ok and times where I am depressed but never to the point where I cant get out of bed. But I don't work or go to school. I quit all my jobs and I dropped out of school. I feel anxious a lot of the time, helpless, just really lost.....I dunno whats wrong with me. I wish I knew for sure because I would hate to continue the Lamictal and risk the more serious side effects for a disorder that I may not even have. I just wish someone could look into my brain and tell me for sure.

I am always tired and kinda shaky I cant figure out if its the Lamictal or Seroquel which ever I am stopping it when I find out what it is I cant handle the side effects I am very sensitive to the side effects of any meds.