Posted by yxibow on October 26, 2005, at 22:07:55
In reply to Getting off Seroquel, posted by greenhornet on October 26, 2005, at 12:18:54
> I have been taking 25mgm of Seroquel for sleep for about a year. I have tried several times to stop it, without success. I tried Benadryl and warm milk which seemed to work at first. Then one night, although I felt very sleepy, I tossed and turned until 3AM then woke up at 6AM! I guess that all of the Seroquel was finally out of my system. Anyway, my doctor has started me on Ativan 0.5mgm at bedtime. Last night was the first night for Ativan-no Seroquel and I fell asleep but woke up at 3AM and could not go back to sleep, so I took another Ativan. All well and good, but that put me over how much Ativan that I am supposed to take in 24 hours...Any advice here?
You were probably withdrawing from the Seroquel even though 25mg is not per se an antipsychotic level dosage.
Short term insomnia can be managed by benzodiazepines such as Ativan, but you run the risk of an escalating dose as it has a half life of about 16 hours at most.
Benadryl can be used temporarily but in my recollection of using it, it creates second-day depression.
Personally, though I take Seroquel for an off label purpose, I don't think neuroleptics should be used for a sleep aid by themselves unless there is some other reason for taking it.
I would advocate either something more soporific in the benzo category like temazepam (Restoril), or a long term sleep aid like Lunesta or Ambien/Ambien CR which is more intended for managing insomnia
Hope you get some sleep
poster:yxibow
thread:572096
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051024/msgs/572253.html