i'm on seroquel for bipolar and have been on it since about november of 2008.. since starting i've gained 30lbs. I've tried just regular tylenol pm's, they don't even phase me. i'm on 300mg of seroquel and i'm even starting to get immuned to it. does anyone know of any other medicine to try for sleeping? i want to quit the seroquel so bad, but i literally won't sleep without it. i could go for days if i don't take anything. please help!
300mg is a quite a low dose. I am on 300 in the morning and again at night and it knocks me out like a dream. You could even suggest to your DR that you take more and all of it at night and then you would defo sleep!
Hope this helps, the minimum reccomended dose for bipolar is 500mg.
What else have you tried? Have you tried any sleeping pills? Seroquel is the only thing that has worked for me, but unfortunately you can get the weight gain. Sometimes lack of sleep is caused by a slightly manic state, so you might benefit from trying another atypical antipsychotic, some are less likely to cause weight gain.
Also, what else are you taking? It could also be your mood stabilizer causing the weight gain.
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well the 300mg is working fine now and putting me to sleep easily. i'm on an antibiodic for lung infection and realized the medicine for it said it could alter the effects of other medicine. for my regular mood stabilizer i'm supposed to be taking lamactil, although i haven't taken it for quite sometime. and i do believe it's the mania that keeps me from sleeping at night. my current psych dr's office has closed and there's nowhere around here for me to really go. luckily my sister is bipolar too and has seroquel although she doesn't take it anymore so i've been able to take hers because both of my perscriptions ran out and i haven't found another dr. yet. thanks for the advice, i'm going to find a new place to go and see if i can get on a different mood stablizer.
Tiffany, I was prescribed Seroquel once as a sleeping aid--they stressed that even though it's called an anti-psychotic, they were giving it to me for sleep--and it made me miserable. I only took 50 mg, but even 12 hours after taking it and sleeping, I was literally stumbling and disoriented and down and sad and mopey. It was just awful.
Like Bethann asked, have you tried any other sleep aids, or a combo of sleep aids? Currently I am sleeping on a combo of 12.5 mg Ambien CR and .5 mg Klonopin, and it doesn't make me a zombie, but does allow me to get quality sleep. And yes, I also think that lack of sleep can lead to a more manic state, too.
Have you taken Lamictal or another mood stabilizer in the past? I just started Lamictal about 4 weeks ago, and even though I am not diagnosed as bipolar--just "mood disorder"--I was placed on the Lamictal because the antidepressant just wasn't cutting it anymore. I don't know much about treating bipolar, but I would guess they'd want you on some sort of a combo of meds--your Seroquel, plus Lamictal or another mood stabilizer.
Good luck, sweetie! I hope you are able to get in to see someone soon, so you can start feeling better!
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I take Lamictal 200 mg as a mood stabilizer, I also take Wellbutrin 300 mg (which I would never do without the mood stabilizer), Klonopin 1 mg, and Ambien 2.5 mg (I'm weaning myself off, and I seem to be doing just fine - for now - I started at 10 mg). For sleep, the Klonopin/Ambien combo was my little dream team.
I think Seroquel is MUCH too much to take for SLEEP. I MIGHT take an antipsychotic for a very short time (maybe 1 week) as a mania intervention. I took Geodon for a long time before I found out about PCOS, and started the Klonopin/Ambien when I got off of it, because I could no longer sleep. I have been on it ever since.
I would seriously talk to the doc about a longterm low-dose treatment for mania-induced insomnia. Most antipsychotics are contraindicated for women who have PCOS - for the weight gain alone (which is why I got off the Geodon).
anything besides seroquel? 
