Seroquel - Have you ever been prescribed this drug for Major Depression?

I found it made me incredibly tired to the point of collapse and exhaustion. It typically did the job in calming my thoughts and helping me sleep at night, but with the result of totally knocking me out. Getting up and functioning the next day was a challenge.

Weird, vivid dreams.

It makes you super hungry and fat on the long haul.

OP - I just saw this post and don't have time to write a long journal entry right now - RESEARCH as much as you can. Seroquel is not an SSRI (anti-depressant), It's in the group of meds called Anti-psychotics, which should only be prescribed to those who have clearly been diagnosed bipolar and schizophrenic. It changes your brain chemistry permanently and can have some horrible side effects that last long after you've stopped taking the drug. It really fucked me up. I was put on it in 2011, and I never would have agreed had a learned then what I later discovered - and this was AFTER suffering the effects - effects I was not warned about by my doctor at the time.

There used to be a sight called CrazyMeds. There was an article published completely breaking down the properties of Seroquel, how it works, what it does to you, etc. I strongly recommend you try to find it online.... and go to chatboards where others have discussed it.

Keep in mind, it can be a wonderful drug for some and has helped many, but these are extreme cases. It's fucked up a helluva lot of people as well, (like me).

I'll check back later when I have more time.

Thank you so much for your responses!

The drug does seem extreme for me. It’s not like I’m hanging on by a thread.

I'm on quetiapine which is the generic form. I've been using the medication for 11-12 years now along with trazodone. I can't fall asleep naturally anymore. If I miss a single dose like I did last night, I suffer withdrawals. They're not as severe as they were years before but they still fuck me up. I get hot and sweaty, nauseous, light sensitivity and migraines.

I gain a TON of weight on that drug - I was depressed AND fat. And I was always tired I could sleep every fucking hour of the day DOn't start taking it

Made me want to binge eat at night (I was prescribed it for sleep).

seems like it would be a better name for PREP. SERO Quell

This is not for depression. Clearly your doc thinks you have bigger problems.

Are any of you on antidepressants and also an alcoholic? or know someone who is?

Friend of mine was on it and it changed his personality for the worst. He switched doctors when his doctor wouldn't take him off it. He went off of it and felt much better.

Fucking stay away from it. I gained 25 lbs and couldn’t stay awake. I lost friendships because I would regularly flake out from being tired all the time. Take CBD, exercise and keep your mind occupied on more positive pursuits instead of relying on a pill, it’s the best way, trust me.

My brother takes it. It makes him very sleepy. When lithium wasn't working, his doctor prescribed Seroquel along with the lithium. In my brother's case, the two did not interact well and turned him into a ranting lunatic with frequent black outs and memory loss. After four months, he was weaned off of lithium and he seems much more stable than he has in years.

R12 I don't understand this thing about "his doctor wouldn't take him off it".....nobody has to take a pill just because their doctor prescribes it. You simply don't fill the prescription if you disagree. What are they going to do, arrest you? If you disagree with ANY medical advice, you can ignore it entirely. Too many doctors seem to want to medicate every tiny thing and we have become the most outrageously over-medicated society in history.

It’s a terrible drug. When I took my prescription to the pharmacy and asked some extra questions, the guy said to me, only take it if you’ll die without it, they don’t call it Prison Heroin for nothing.

I've prescribed it numerous times, mostly as a non-benzodiazepine sedative/anxiolytic for insomnia. It can be used as an adjunct treatment for major depressive disorder, in combination with other SSRI/SNRI treatment, but personally I wouldn't use it as first line treatment, even as an adjunct, because as many have said, it can be very sedating. It's also used off-label for treatment resistant generalized anxiety disorder because of its sedative/anxiolytic properties. I would probably just prescribe a benzodiazepine in tx-resistant GAD, if one hasn't been tried, before quetiapine/Seroquel. It's also recommended you have some blood work done at baseline when prescribed quetiapine (lipid panel, glucose if diabetes risk, CBC with differential if there is a history of leukopenia/neutropenia, and, of course, weight, because as many have pointed out, weight gain is common). Perhaps the psych NP who has posted here in the past will see this thread and can add some insight.

Remember that the quantity makes all the difference. A small dose is for calming thoughts at night so you can sleep and wouldn't be strong enough to counteract psychotic symptoms.

R4 back for a few minutes. Seroquel is given out by many like cough drops. Policeman give it to perps when brought into the police station to calm them down because it puts them out for hours. Like a couple posters have mentioned, once you take it for sleep you can never get off it. I have to take a few milligrams every night, possibly for the rest of my life, because I can't sleep without it. Previous to being put on it, sleep had never been an issue for me.

It bugs me how on television you'd see therapists like Dr. Drew rail against benzos and how dangerous and addictive they are, but then praise Seroquel as being a "clean" drug, whatever the fuck that means. They're full of sheet. Your doc may tell you Seroquel is NOT addictive. It can be HIGHLY addictive, and far worse getting off of than Xanax or Klonopin. Believe every nasty story on this thread.

Again, If you're really suffering and have tried everything else, Seroquel could be a miracle. It is for some. But only as a last resort.

^^ sorry for a couple of obvious typos.

I was on it for major depression (along with other things) and I gained 30 kg in just under 12 months. When I complained about this to the Dr he told me I was lucky, the average gain on it is in the 50-60 kg region in the first 12 months. Like someone upthread, it ruined my ability for natural sleep.

" it can be very sedating"

Two glasses of red wine can be very sedating. A 25mg pill of Seroquel is like suddenly being hit in the back of your head with a hammer. Go to sleep NOW!

I'm not exaggerating. That was my experience, And I'm not the only one.

It’s absolutely awesome as a sleeping pill when no other medication will get you to sleep. It knocks you out. However it can have long term side effects like diabetes and give you serious munchies and weight gain. It is not a light medication by any means.

Touché, R22. You're not wrong. To be fair, though, not everyone responds to medication the same, but yes, it's generally very sedating. That's why I sometimes prescribe it for insomnia, though I don't use it as first-line treatment. Generally, I would try trazodone, hydroxyzine, perhaps even a Z-drug or benzo, before quetiapine. It all depends on the patient and their relevant medical history.

No offense, but this thread just reminded me of SNL's parody commercial of HuckaPM, of what Sarah Huckabee took to sleep at night.

R19, if you can't sleep without quetiapine (a.k.a. Seroquel, Xeroquel here in my country), it means you're dependent on it. I too was dependent on it but contrarily to what hypnotic benzos do to you, you can shake off the dependency in a matter of one or two weeks. With benzos, it's a matter of months if not years. How would I know? Because I depended on both benzos and quetiapine to get a decent sleep, and getting rid of the antipsychotic/antihistamine was way way easier than trying to quit the benzos. I do agree that stopping quetiapine for sleep will make it almost impossible to sleep for one week, but then you go over the hump. With benzos, no such luck.

Now that I've said that, giving anti-psychotic drugs for depression is an awful idea. What makes you depressed is way beyond lacking serotonin; dopamine is very much involved too. the more dopamine you have, the better you feel. The problem with dopamine is that it activates an area of the brain (the nucleus accumbens) that makes all drugs that raise dopamine addictive. The more they raise dopamine, the more addictive they are. So sure avoiding addiction is a good idea, but giving anti-psychotic drugs that lower dopamine is truly a fucked-up idea when you try to treat depression.

My take on it, as a patient, would be that Seroquel is okay to take if you absolutely need to be *HEAVILY* sedated occasionally, but a fucked up idea to treat depression. In fact, it is more used in bipolar disorder, to help manic people to come down. Why would you need to bring down someone who is already depressed to begin with?

R17 I suspect you care for your patients and look at prescribing as a science like most doctors do. The issues I've had with doctors, is when they don't believe me about certain symptoms I may be suffering, or accuse me of exaggerating. Nothing more frustrating for a patient than feeling like you've just been dismissed. My hope is that you read this, and when prescribing Seroquel and strong drugs like it, inform your patient of all the possible, nasty side effect. And just as important. Give your patient an end date. Like, take it for two weeks but then immediately try to taper off.... or take it every other night and see how it goes. I felt like I was given a lifetime sentence because my doctor was either dismissive - OR - (am afraid to sey) - knowing I had trepidation. deliberately misinformed me as he felt I should be on the drug anyway.

Everyone with PTSD gets it too. People who seriously need to calm down.

R26, R19 here. I was lied to. I was told I needed to stay on it at least 6 months before it did what was necessary and I could then taper off. I was told I'd get used to the side effects. The effects gradually tapered off slightly, but never completely. One thing: I did LOVE the sleep. I called it the LSD of sleep meds. But when the side effects far exceeded any benefit and was obvious to me it they never would, I went to another doctor who attempted to wean me off when mine refused, (which is what a patient means when he says, "my doctor wouldn't take me off of it"). I eventually weaned off completely, everything seemed to get back to normal, but weeks later I was hit by this think called "Back door" insomnia or "kick back". I went from the normal 8 hours of sleep, to seven, to six. I'd finally fall asleep at 4am, then wake up at 6am. Finally I went sleep deprived for almost six weeks. NOTHING worked. I even took 15mg of Ambien and it was like a caffeine pill. I was crazy and desperate. I got a 25mg pill of seroquel - and finally slept And this all happened weeks after I had taken the last does and thought I was out of the woods..... I was hospitalized for the one and only time, and met other patients who had suffered the same damn thing, but were told by their doctors they were crazy or lying.

So now I just accept my fate and am able to get to sleep on 1/4 of a 25mg pill. I don't ever want to go thru that again.

I hear you completely, R27. I'm a nurse practitioner, not a physician, and with all due respect to my MD/DO colleagues, NPs as a profession tend to be a little more holistic in our approach and we tend to spend more time with our patients. I'm still supposed to see a minimum of 100 patients per week, and my productivity bonus depends on meeting those numbers, but if my patient has complex comorbidities, or wants to voice & discuss concerns that takes longer than their 20 minute appointment slot, I'm not going to push them out the door so I can see patients like a conveyor-belt line.

I had a doctor who prescribed me Seroquel and a bunch of other dtugs--Lithium, Kolonopin, and maybe three others--simultaneously. After years of this, abd increased doses as I would get used to the previous doses, I was essentially made an addict and developed something that was akin to mimicking Parkinsons. It took almost a year to get off the drugs and, years later, I still have tremors. I go without meds now--not something I recommend; in order to do so, I really just go to work and spend the rest of my time (museum going, vacations, movies, walks) alone so as to not bother people. What those drugs did was horrible; that a doctor was so careless and that in the midst of it I so passive, still wows me. I don't know how much Seroquel was to bkame--a different doctor told me that Kolonopin and Lithium combined were the likely culprits of the damage--but I don't trust any drug meant to tame the mind. It feels like we're all being lab rats. I'd rather be alone.

I have a 14 year history with Seroquel. At first it was prescribed for Bipolar and sleeping disorder. I believe I took 300mg when I started, I now take 1000mg at bedtime. I had a 30-inch waist, now I'm now 34-inches at the waist. It makes you incredibly hungry, like irrationally hungry, and since you're halfway asleep, you'll eat anything, and hordes of it. I still wake up frequently, even taking 1000mg. It has done nothing for my depression.

R31: Tardive dyskinesia? I don't know your medical history/diagnoses, obviously, but all those medications seem very excessive. I'm glad you were able to wean yourself off of them, but if you feel you [bold]should[/bold] still be on a psychoactive medication, perhaps look into seeing a psychiatric nurse practitioner.

Ah, Seroquel. I've been on it for about 10 years (along with other meds) and honestly it's the only thing that calms me down at night and allows me to sleep (I have severe bipolar). The side effects are very brutal, though. Increased hunger (especially overnight), huge weight gain, tremors, etc. It seems a bit extreme for your doctor to be prescribing it for depression, particularly if it's of a milder form. I'd definitely consider Seroquel to be a 'last resort' drug.

I'm on 400mg.

R30 When I left the pdoc who refused to help in weaning me off the seroquel, I went to a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. During our first interview, she completely confirmed everything I believed about what the drug was doing to me and also she had seen it happen with others. She practically saved my life. And she charged me $75 a session! Can you fucking believe that? Of course, she was often hard to schedule because she was so busy.

You guys are amazing! I wish there were more!!

My BMI went from 21 to 27 while I was on Seroquel in a matter of a year. I was only on 300 mg. I complained about it to my PDoc but she wouldn't even adjust the dosage. So what I did was tapering it off over a couple months then I stopped taking it altogether and my BMI went right down back to 23. No more irrational hunger crisis half an hour after having taking it. But now I lie to my doctor when I say that I am compliant since I pretend I still take the Seroquel (I kept the Lamictal and the odd benzo). When my weight went back down she complimented me for the loss and I lied and told her I was on a keto diet. I don't think Seroquel did anything positive for my mental and physical health and I'm doing okay without it. I don't advise people to do what I did and not be compliant with their treatment, but when your doctor is a know-it-all-better like mine, not amenable to adjustments, and you cannot change it easily because of your health insurance, I did the lying game as a very last resort.

I took seroquel with topamax so my weight gain wasn’t bad. But after about 5 years on it I found the tremors and and always being cold were driving me crazy

I'm on 2 2/3 of trazodone 150 mg tablets for a total of 400mg along with the aforementioned 400 mg of quetiapine. Once I get down to 300mg of trazodone, my NP and I are thinking of reducing the quetiapine down to 300mg. Hopefully it will make it easier for me to lose weight. I once walked 10-12 miles 3 days in a row and barely ate and didn't lose a single pound. It has to be the meds.

How can you be on so much traz? That is a massive dose.

As for quet, you must have the controlled release because that would also be a massive dose.

My understanding of Seroquel is that the drug itself doesn't make you gain weight, it's the crazy binge-eating the drug causes. Is that the case?

It's just a really strong antihistamine.

I’m really surprised by some of the info on here. Trazodone as a first line insomnia treatment ? Why not Ambien? Or even Xanax? Can’t imagine going to Seroquel.

Do the NOs here really think Trazodone or Seroquel are better for insomnia than Ambien? Shocked as I’ve used Ambien or Xanax for years for insomnia - and I’d rather take eiether of those than Trazodone never mind Seroquel.

They don’t give out benzodiazepines much anymore. And ambien is not effective for a lot of people.

Not a pro here but lots of cray cray friends and exes over the years.

I've been on it for seven years. I gained 35 lbs. I've been trying to wean myself off it for about two years with the permission under the guidance of my doctor. I'm down to 50 mg a night. When I've tried to go with less or even cold turkey it has been horrible. I can't even begin to describe it. Jesus this thread is freaking me out. So is the only way to get off it to go into rehab or be hospitalized?!!! Thanks DL! If I didn't have enough to worry about with my anal hygiene because of you guys.

It's popular in prisons because it's strong enough to allow an inmate to sleep through his entire sentence. I took it for a while and it is horribly sedating (and long-lasting) and will make you ravenous as a zombie.

R43: I'm going to assume, "Do the 'NOs' here..." was supposed to be "NPs," which is me, so I'll answer. I would not use quetiapine/Seroquel as first line treatment for insomnia unless the person also had relevant comorbidities (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder). Trazodone, on the other hand, is considered first-line treatment. It is definitely one of the most commonly prescribed medications for insomnia.

Keeping in mind I'm a Family Nurse Practitioner, not Psychiatric/Mental Health NP, zolpidem/Ambien (or any Z-drug) or alprazolam/Xanax (or other benzodiazepine) would not be my first prescriptions written for a patient newly presenting with insomnia. I'm not even someone who is reluctant to prescribe benzos (or even opioids, for that matter [not for insomnia, obviously]) when it's medically indicated, but it doesn't take away from the fact that Z-drugs and benzos are both Schedule IV controlled substances and therefor more closely scrutinized. It just doesn't look good, or really justifiable, to start a patient right on a controlled substance for insomnia when there are other, non-controlled options you can try first. I, and the majority of my colleagues, use step therapy: for example, you would try hydroxyzine, then trazodone, and then might consider a Z-drug or benzo if the first two fail.

There are also melatonin receptor agonists like remelteon/Rozerem and tasimelteon/Hetlioz, which are not controlled substances, but it's not always easy to get insurance to cover them due to other, cheaper options. That is another factor: many insurances now require prior authorization for benzodiazepines & other controlled substances and will not approve insurance coverage of the prescribed medication until, and if, another non-controlled medication like hydroxyzine, trazodone or, perhaps, even quetiapine/Seroquel, is tried and failed, first. It's highly dependent upon the particular insurance plan and their rules. The patient always has the option of paying cash for the prescribed medication, if their insurance won't cover it, but that's not always financially feasible for many patients.

Thanks R47. Yes meant NP. Trazodone was much stronger to me than Ambien or 0.5 mg Xanax and left me knocked out. But it makes sense to me now. The damn government deciding what we should be allowed because somebody abused Ambien or Xanax. Ambien has been a zero side effect drug for me for 15 years. Don’t take daily. Never had serious withdrawal. Same with Xanax. Maybe it’s the small dosage. But it sucks that if my shrink retires, I wont be able to get them anymore.

Trazodone didn't do dick for my sleep after Ambien stopped working. I'm taking Lunesta now, which is working, but I wake up in 6 hours to the minute.

I hope some of the people who posted on this thread are still around.

I've also taken Seroquel for insomnia for a couple of years and I slowly reduced the dosage over 2 years. The side effects started immediately and I was lucky when I could get 3 straight hours of sleep. I stopped taking it altogether at the end of May and I can report the same problems others here had on this thread. Totally fucked up my natural sleep. First I tried Benadryl and stopped that after a couple of weeks. I'm currently using 3mg of Melatonin and 1-2 glasses of red wine in the evening to fall asleep. But I often only sleep for maybe 3 hours. I'm often awake till 5am and if I'm lucky, can sleep for another 2 hours. Last night I was very lucky and slept for 5 hours.

Does anyone here who took it for several years and stopped taking it have any experience with the side effects? Will my natural sleep pattern eventually return and I can sleep for 8 (uninterrupted) hours again? This is so exhausting. After weeks of only 3-4 hours of sleep at night, I always hope my body will eventually cave in and I'll get my 8 hours back.

I've ordered CBD now (capsules and oil) bc I read it helps people with insomnia and to sleep through the night. Maybe a combination of Melatonin and CBD will help. Did CBD help anyone here with their insomnia?

R50, if you are attempting to go sans meds, which I endorse, then you have to quit everything. That means wine, pills, everything. Maybe even the melatonin.

I know this is hard to believe but if you just stick with it and stay patient, even through the months of little sleep, you will eventually even out and you will get on a natural rhythm.

It takes a long time though and you have to be patient even when it seems impossible. But stick with it, and it’s very important to do all the sleep hygiene stuff but the most important is to lay down at the same time everyday and get up out of bed the same time every single day, even on weekends.

It really works but it takes forever. You stick to the reg, and give it several months. But you will se improvements more and more in between then.

Take walks and all that recommend stuff but don’t forget to do the routine. Same time up, same time down.

Also, you have to trust that many people have recovered because that trust will help you to relax and sleep deeper. Know for a fact that it will improve. We are all wired to sleep the amount we need. No more, no less. But that is in the absence of stress. We have not evolved to handle heavy stress for prolonged times. Just long enough to get away from a tiger.

But know and trust in the process and let your body and physical mechanisms do the driving, not your thoughts or fears. Let your body take over for a while. You are away from the tiger now.

R50, I've posted a few replies here. My experience getting off Seroquel was quite different from R51. What is true and works for some doesn't necessarily work for all. Seroquel can completely change your brain chemistry depending on how long you were on it and how much you took, it might be practically impossible to revert back to the state R50 discussed. But everybody is different. Western medicine is supposed to be an exact science, but psyche meds are the least exact of any. My side effects were so bad I had to completely cut off Seroquel - NOTHING worked to replace it. One pdoc gave me 30mg of Melatonen, another 500mg of Trazadone. I even tried 15mg of Ambien, (3 times the normal amount). NOTHING! My sleep went from 8hrs to 6 to 3 to going three weeks straight with less than 1 hr a night. It led me on a horrible odyssey. My first stint in a rehab. Two weeks in a high end facility in the Pacific Palisades. But my descent was so brutal that three months later, I ended up in the attic of Bellevue! I could write a book, (and I've seriously considered it). I had no choice but to go back on Seroquel and deal with the side effects. It's a very cheap drug, and doctors give it out like candy so, unlike benzos or stimulants, doctors will prescribe it handily. I went back on it, and was grateful to suddenly get 8 hours sleep again. Even if I was eating out every refrigerator within a 3 mile radius. I then began a very, very slow titration. It took me two years. 100mg to 50mg to 25mg.. Now, I cut a 25mg pill into 6 portions. I literally take a dot before bed and am able to fall asleep. Doctor's claim it's such a tiny amount it should do nothing, yet occasionally I'll find myself awake at 2am, then realize I forgot to take it. Or find myself asleep, head down on my computer if I had taken it a bit early but neglected to lie in bed my usual time so I know that little bit works with no side effects.

My advice is to go R51's route first, but if it becomes as intolerable for you as it did for me, there's no shame in going back on it, and just titrating ever so slowly.

Good luck my friend!!

The only time I agree with Scientology. Psychiatrists are drug dealing quacks.

99% sure that none of you on psych drugs are exercising regularly or putting any effort into your wellbeing yourself.

Seroquel would knock me out for weekends on end. But weirdly enough, when I would wake up their would be clarity in how i thought. No more demons or "back talk"

I mean, I knew a lot of you were seriously mentally ill, but this thread just confirms it. Seroquel is not an antidepressant, it’s a major antipsychotic, prescribed for hardcore bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and in SEVERE cases of major depression. If you’re being prescribed Seroquel, you’re one step away from a rubber room.

^Many here have already stated that lots of physicians also prescribe it for insomnia. I'm neither schizophrenic nor bipolar. If you need to blame someone, maybe start with the doctors who hand out prescriptions for it so easily.

No. Extreme somnolence. Good luck!

When I was getting my meds for depression sorted, attending support meetings with other patients was very helpful. The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance runs support groups with a moderator. Hearing from a woman who was also having bizarre dreams with Trazodone let me know that that was a side effect, not a symptom of the underlying depression. They're free. I recommend meetings for those who aren't happy with their meds or wonder if there's something better.