Seroquel dosage and side effects? - Bipolar Disorder Message Board

tocoja13 · 04-29-2008, 02:12 PM

Hello, I've been on Seroquel for 20 days at a dosage of 300 for 17 of those days, my daytime tiredness, grogginess and sleepiness has been real bad since the second day dosage of 50 mg. Typically do these side effects get worse as the dosage goes up, especially from 300 to 400 or 600 mg? I have a pdoc appt. tomorrow and am debating going up in dosage because I need it or stay at 300 mg if my daytime tiredness will increase. Or should I ask for an additional medication that doesn't cause daytime tiredness if any exist, I have never found one and I have been on several for depression, anxiety and depressive phases of bipolar disorder. My daytime side effects vary from day to day, sometimes I am functional and sometimes I am not able to do anything all day. I suffer from severe complex sleep apnea (cpap doesn't help) and insomnia to make matters worse. Thanks for any advice.

Llama · 04-30-2008, 05:49 PM

Hopefully this post is not too late! If so, how did the appt go?

Usually you should give a med a full month at a therapeutic dose to see if side effects subside. This is usually the amount of time that your body needs to get used to a med.

I am on provigil for low energy and tiredness from meds (abilify and lamictal...although I never had any problems with this when I was just on lamictal). But this may not be a good option for you since you also have insomnia. This med can keep you up at nights.

Another option might be to keep the low dose of seroquel and add something else like lamictal, depakote, lithium, tegretol or any mood stabilizer if you are still having bp symptoms that need to be taken care of.

tocoja13 · 05-01-2008, 02:33 PM

My pdoc gave me samples of 300 mg and 100 mg and said to up the Seroquel to 400, then 500 or 600. I took 400 mg last night, a 100 mg increase and it put me into a drunken stupor like feeling. Earlier I went from 100 to 300 with no problem, strange. I had trouble talking, walking and had all sorts of weird feelings inside, not fun. My pdoc says I only need to wait a couple of days before upping my dosages. I'll try the extra 100 mg a couple more nights, but if I can't get used to it I'll stay at 300 mg and add something else. I have tried Provigil, Lamictal, abilify, cymbalta and invega recently with no help and several others over the past 10 years, I hate this medical merry-go-round. Thanks for the help.

katlin09 · 05-01-2008, 04:45 PM

Ummm...I guess I'm a little confused, if you went to your pdoc complaining of drowsiness because of the Seroquel, why did he up your dose?

craziunique · 05-03-2008, 09:23 PM

I'm a seroquel as well. It works great for me as for my moods and helps me to be balanced out. As for tiredness - yes that has happened to me at first. Even now a few months into it. I take 50 mg in the morning and 50 mid afternoon. One thing I have notice - I have to take the two at least 5 hours min in between doses. If I take one does say at 10am and then the other at 2pm - I do get sleepy and I want to take a nappy nap. - Say for instance, I just got up at say 9am, with the night dosage at 200mg -

I guess you just have to learn your body.

Are you taking a higher dosage at night? Because I know it will stay in your system for a while into the next day.

peace