Posted by med_empowered on May 26, 2005, at 23:08:15
In reply to All SEROQUEL USERS-HELP!!!, posted by hockeygirlcanada on May 26, 2005, at 17:12:15
hey! 400mgs of Seroquel is pretty sedating for anybody. If you don't mind you asking...did your doc explain the use of **ANY** antipsychotic, and the use of this amount of Seroquel in particular? If you're dealing with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or severe depression with psychotic features, this amount of seroquel might be understandable. With depression that is treatment resistant but **not** at all psychotic in nature, though, using seroquel at all, particularly at 400mgs plus klonopin and trazadone seems a bit much. Antipsychotics plus antidepressants can help a lot with depression, but there's no point in fixing the depression if you're just going to sleep all day or be lethargic all the time. Personally, I'd try a switch. I hated seroquel for other reasons (it made me melancholy and gave me terrible dreams). When necessary, I took Abilify and it was OK. Not great--I'm not an antipsychotic fan--but OK; no sedation, no weight gain, no major side effects at all. Zyprexa has the best data in terms of treating depression (hence the prozac+zyprexa combo that is Symbyax), but Abilify *seems* to have antidepressant effects without weight gain, diabetes, heart problems, or tardive dyskinesia. Risperdal is another option although I think its a pretty "rough" atypical...Geodon is pretty good, though there are some heart-issues (qTC interval thing...you see it also with tricyclic anti-depressants; so far, it doesn't look like a BIG problem, but Mellaril did the same thing and now its been linked to some deaths, so who knows). Anyway, personally, I'd pump up the antidepressant (remeron instead of trazadone, maybe add cymbalta or effexor, perhaps use Surmontil, an old tricyclic), add some BuSpar (helps with anxiety AND boosts antidepressants) and maybe do low-dose Abilify (10mgs--smallest effective dose for psychotic disorders; definitely effective for depression)...but, hey, im not a doc...just my suggestions. Anyway, good luck!
poster:med_empowered
thread:503268
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050521/msgs/503442.html