Weaning off of Seroquel

PLEASE HELP! I have been on Seroquel for 26 days now. After taking for a little while I could not stand the side effects so I decided to get off. I started out at 100mg/day and have been tapering down 25 mg/day every 6 or 7 days. The last 3 days I have taken only 12.5mg a night and night before last was the first night that I had some serious insomnia. Last night I took none and all hell broke loose. I was up crying, having all kinds of bad thoughts and feeling like I was having a nervous breakdown. I finally had to take 12.5 mg at 8AM this morning when it just would not stop. Then took another 12.5mg later this afternoon to get some more sleep. Has anyone else taken an equivalent dose for somewhere around the same amount of time? Is this tapering too fast? I mean I cannot go any lower than 12.5 really. Also, if I just bite the bullet, how long do you think these w/ds will last based on how long I have been on the meds?

OMG i have been off this Seroquel CRAP for one month and feel like a new person!!!!!!!

MY FAILED WITHDRAWAL:

My experiences about Seroquel withdrawal.

I was put on Seroquel for panic and some alcohol+some med stupid mistake that caused sleeping problems and some sort of strange dreaming and confusion.

I was using Seroquel 400mg/night.
First dropped Seroquel 400mg straight to 200mg/night. Had some withdrawal effects that nothing too bad.

Then weaned down from 200mg to 100mg in one month, no problems.
After 100mg I weaned down to 25mg in one month, no problems. Some diarrhea after going down to Seroquel 25mg.
Then dropped to 25mg to zero, bad insomnia for 3 days. Took BCAA supplements (2x recommended dose in night, quite many pills)
which gave temporarily some sleep (BCAA reduces dopamine and serotonin).
Slept few days about ok.
Then for 30 days I had insomnia, slept 3 hours, chaotic, very sleepy but couldn't sleep. Used heavily melatonin and valerian and few sleeping pills. Exercise (walking, running) during days helped. I was not working during this period.

After 30 days I started to get some some 8 hours/night sleep and started feeling better. Still some sleepless nights. Sleeping pills helped.

But then I get erection problems and panic symptoms, running around, thinking I was going to die. I also got some strange lack of concentration and sweating symptoms.

Went to (non-local) hospital. They sent me out saying I was ok.
Ran to another hospital. They took me in and gave me Zyprexa 20mg (and I was NOT psychotic).
Nice... Only thing I really would have needed, were temesta (lorazepam) and someone saying I was alright
(the nurse first let me go but then I went back and a doctor decide to take me in).
Then forced to take Zyrexa 20mg for 2 weeks before I got out of there.

After this episode switching to Seroquel 200mg/night. Not sleeping well thought, seroquel not working so well anymore.

MY EXPERIENCE:

- be patient when withdrawing from seroquel! otherwise you fail and result is disaster.
- the last drop to 0mg is the hardest, the closer the zero you go the slower you should go
(see it this way, taking doses close to zero is not a problem so don't become greedy and try to go to zero quickly)
- withdrawal symptoms (especially insomnia) usually lasts up to 30 days
- once you go down to zero (slowly) don't restart medication but use valerian, melatonin and sleeping pills (seldomly) to handle very bad insomnia (much worse than any 'natural' insomnia)
- doxepin 5-10mg a night or some other very potent antihistamine can also help (people won't usually get withdrawals from 5mg,
going to doxepin from seroquel means adrenergic receptors are freed and you only blocking pure histamine receptor as a final step),
don't use higher doses of doxepin thought as it is nasty SSRI with nasty withdrawals
- because of insomnia you probably need support from doctor so self withdrawal from seroquel is likely to fail
(sleeping pills, tiny doxepin/remeron dose)
- if don't sleep during a night and as a result fell asleep (even briefly) during day then you know you are close being able
to sleep at night may only with melatonin or something
- ashwagandha, 5-htp, huperzine A, omega-3, ALCAR, carnosine, glycine can also help BUT DON'T USE huperzine A soon after seroquel discontinuation it's an (weak) NMDA antagonist and seroquel+NMDA antagonists can cause brain damage!
- C-vitamin reduces histamine levels so using it as supplement may help, B-vitamin+niacin is good for nervous system as well
- make sure you have LOTS of free time in your hands when finally stopping seroquel, insomnia etc. symptoms can become so bad that you need to have 2 months of time when you can only barely function
- if you are lucky you might not get almost impossible to deal with insomnia from seroquel withdrawal I have read many to have very bad insomnia problems when withdrawing from seroquel thought
- don't panic and if you get problems have a doctor how you can reach fast/easily and how knows you and is supportive for your withdrawal attempt
- you can get strange and scary withdrawal symptoms that can be due to insomnia or directly from stopping the meds, don't panic
- for healing from possible brain damage caused by neuroleptics use doctors how know orthomolecular medicine, typical psychiatrist don't know much else than the meds they prescribe, also nutritionists etc can help

Some useful additional supplements:
- choline, inositol, theanine, l-tryptophan, hericium erinaceus (increases brain growth factors!)

anti - coming off seroquel can be fatal. I hope you are under Dr. supervision!

tortoise

Thanks - I have a good doctor and he has been monitoring me. I have been coming down gradually over the last year - its just this last step giving me the withdrawal effects - a few days now with lack of sleep, diarrhoea, sweats etc - if it lasts too long I will call my doc. we are being very careful

voix

Thanks - please see above response to tortoise

No, sure its the meds. Started all the same time 36 hours after my last dose. Changes in my head, lack of sleep, seriously bad sweats along with the gut and some tremors. I doubt its a bug. We'll just have to see what happens over the next few days

Thanks :)

Read this: http://comingdownfromseroquel.blogspot.com/2009/03/cold-turkey-and-seroquel.html

I had a very similar experience, but I did not end up in the hospital.

I am on 800mg/ day. does anyone have any ideas on how to wean off of that?

I started seroquel in August 1st 3 days 50mgs stuffy nose, next 3 days 100mgs no sides affects. Slept well for 6 days straight. Got up to 150mgs per day; while driving I could not remember where I was 5 minutes before/blackouts. BUT no more racing thoughts, no anxiety, could think clearly, no voices in my head. HAve this unusal thing of having conversations in my head with people who are not with me or sillly songs that just keep repeapting in my brain. So I decided to reduce the amount back to 100mgs. The racy thoughts came back really bad. Other problem I can drink ice tea with this med speeds up my pulse. Seroquel works wells with exercise I don't heat up/sweat alot like I normally do; cool down in about 15minutes and fall asleep. Been on depakote Lithium, Luvox, straterra, celexa, wellburtron, zoloft minimal effect. The worst one was abilify took one 15 mg; slept an average 1-2hrs for 3 days. Finally decicded to go running ti get that out of my system.
Plan to go back to seroquel; but take it a little slowwer. only other side afect sore chest muscle took care of that problem with light jogging biking problem went away. Oh if you should decide to quick seroquel do it a little at a time

Ick, I remember the congestion. I started taking loratidine so I could breathe at night!

I've taken Seroguel for 3 years and it was a great drug for me and my mood. I think when we go on the forums to read about drugs we are concerned about something, or multiple somethings. So when we read negative information we get more concerned. Remember that most people post on these sites if they have a bad experience. People that have had no problems don't bother, life is good.

On seroquel I have always slept about 8-10 hours and never felt groggy or fuzzy in the day. I am always able to wake up in the night if one of my kids needs me. And I'm on 600mg a day, a huge dose. The only bad I can say is it caused me to gain a lot of weight quite rapidly but at the time my depression was more important than my weight. I'm starting to ween off now since my mood is good and I'd like to try to lose some weight. Seroquel makes most people VERY hungry all the time so that causes the weight gain. If you are aware ahead of time you can be cautious of your portions. I did not know about this side-effect so I just ate and ate and ate. I'm nervous about going off the drug but expecting side effects till my body levels out. Wish me luck!

Seroquel (quetiapine) is mild medicine in low doses and IMO, therapy, livestyle changes as well as other options (neurologist specialized in sleep) could be first tried before starting to use neuroleptics (or especially benzos).

I don't recommend weaning off high doses of seroquel (or any neuroleptic) if you are doing fine but for those doing this I recommend blog:

http://seroquelwithdrawal.blogspot.com/

However, the writer is not a psychiatrist so I wouldn't trust 100% it.