New Here...question about Seroquel. (side effects) - Schizophrenia Message Board

Mommy2An_Angel · 11-26-2003, 09:26 PM

Hello All,
My psychiatrist gave me Seroquel for me Schizophrenia. The directions were to start off with half a pill for 2 days. (The pills are 100 mgs each) I just started today although I was supposed to a few months ago, but found out I was pregnant. I had a miscarriage last month.

Anyway, I took half a pill this morning and wow! HUGE side effects... Including blurry vision, I couldnt hear myself talk, very dry mouth, feeling extreamly ill to my stomach, very cold, too dizzy to walk, and I couldnt keep my eyes open although I wasnt sleepy.
Im wondering if those are things that will go away, or if Im deadly allergic to them. ?
Im supposed to take 2 a day now, and if 2 doesnt work, then 3 a day. If I cant handle half a pill a day, theres no way Im taking 2 or 3 a day...
Any info is appreciated.

Alicia

Mike in Dallas · 11-27-2003, 12:38 AM

Alicia,
First of all, I'm so sorry to hear about your miscarriage.

I was hoping someone else might respond first, but I feel obligated to say something.

First, why do you think you have schizophrenia? Do you mind sharing any of the symptoms? Atypical nueroleptic drugs such as Seroquel (quetiapine) are very powerful and can cause all sorts of side effects much worse than the ones youi mentioned. These drugs don't necessarily have any effect on irrational thoughts (delusions) or on certain perceptions (hallucinations). Instead, they work by blunting the function of the frontal lobe and the basal ganglia. This can result in varying degress of emotional blandness, apathy, indifference and submissiveness among other changes in the personality.

I would highly recommend you research the pros and cons of Seroquel. If you had some emotional trauma or serious family conflicts in your past I would recommend you first get some counseling (preferably from a female counselor). Who knows, your schizophrenia might just go away.

However, if any of the other users of this board have had great success with Seroquel or any other atypical antipsychotic and now feel like their good old normal self please post a reply and let Alicia know.

Eeporgy · 11-28-2003, 06:31 AM

I agree with the last post entirely, sometimes the illness can be brought on by emotional trauma and when you can get over the problem and get back to being more positive and thinking straight it can very often dissapear.
However I have been taking seroquel for about a year and my current dose is 450mg a day. It has definitly helped to take away the voices and irrational thoughts, but the cost of that has to be that I am much more withdrawn, in that i feel a lot less emotions now. At the moment that is a fair price for me because its better than being confused and ill tempered the whole time.
As for the side effects, I have occasional bouts of dizzyness which are quite disconcerting, its liek a weak feeling in my arms and legs and a lack of coordination. Also I sometimes get a horrbly dry mouth and the wierdest one is I have a lump in each nipple, about the size of a large marble. That doesnt boter me too much as I know its just a lump and not cancer etc as i had it checked out. As for the loss of vision I have glasses anyway but I think when i have the dizzyness my eyes definitly feel more tired and focussing becomes hard work so i usually have a sleep and it goes away. WHich is also by far the most prominent sidfe effect, sleeping. I can sleep for 14 hours and still be tired when i wake up.
So the best advice I can give you is to think hard about how serious your symptoms are and how much they can affect your life, then decide if you need the meds and how well you can control the symptoms without them. If you really have big problems getting on with your life off the meds then its worth the occasional dizzyness etc for me, and i think if you carry on taking them the side effects will drop as you get used to the pills.

P.S. Sorry to hear about your miscarrage, dont let it pull you further down into te illness, the more you dwell on the negative the harder it becomes to stay rational and on top of the illness. Keep fighting.

Mike in Dallas · 11-30-2003, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eeporgy

I agree with the last post entirely, sometimes the illness can be brought on by emotional trauma and when you can get over the problem and get back to being more positive and thinking straight it can very often dissapear.
However I have been taking seroquel for about a year and my current dose is 450mg a day. It has definitly helped to take away the voices and irrational thoughts, but the cost of that has to be that I am much more withdrawn, in that i feel a lot less emotions now. At the moment that is a fair price for me because its better than being confused and ill tempered the whole time.
As for the side effects, I have occasional bouts of dizzyness which are quite disconcerting, its liek a weak feeling in my arms and legs and a lack of coordination. Also I sometimes get a horrbly dry mouth and the wierdest one is I have a lump in each nipple, about the size of a large marble. That doesnt boter me too much as I know its just a lump and not cancer etc as i had it checked out. As for the loss of vision I have glasses anyway but I think when i have the dizzyness my eyes definitly feel more tired and focussing becomes hard work so i usually have a sleep and it goes away. WHich is also by far the most prominent sidfe effect, sleeping. I can sleep for 14 hours and still be tired when i wake up.
So the best advice I can give you is to think hard about how serious your symptoms are and how much they can affect your life, then decide if you need the meds and how well you can control the symptoms without them. If you really have big problems getting on with your life off the meds then its worth the occasional dizzyness etc for me, and i think if you carry on taking them the side effects will drop as you get used to the pills.

P.S. Sorry to hear about your miscarrage, dont let it pull you further down into te illness, the more you dwell on the negative the harder it becomes to stay rational and on top of the illness. Keep fighting.

Eeporgy,

Thanks for your post. It would be much better if neuroleptics such as Seroquel would only be taken for a short term versus a year or longer. They have limited value untill you can work through whatever issues may have caused your condition to surface. Many times the "voices" are metaphors for the underlying conflict. A good psychotherapist could be very helpful versus depending on the blunting effect of the front lobe by the Seroquil. Long term on antipsychotics may cause you to experience very undesireable side effects Voices are not necessarily bad - they may be telling you something from your inner being.

Best regards,
Mike