In reading this I am in panic mode. My son is 9 years old will be 10 in August. He has been on Seroquel for atleast 2 years. I do feel it has helped him but he has gained alot of weight. He has always been a very thin child like his father always wearing clothes made for slim people.example: 8slim, now he is in a 12 husky and they are getting to tight. I don't know exactly how much weight he has gained but it is a significate amount. He also has been very sick this year(alot of flu like symptons and he did have phnemonia in his right lung). His ears and cheeks get red all the time just out of the blue. I have expressed all of these concerns to his doctor over and over again and they get dismissed as being "normal" and just watch his suger intake. My son is Bipolar, and he is your complete text book case whatever you read on bipolar, that is my son. He is on 800 mg of Seroquel a day and 1200 mg of lithium. I am terrified!!! what do i do? obviously call his doctor A.S.A.P but what can this child take ?he has been on everything. He still has problems now.
thanks for anyone help you can give me,
a very scared and concerned mom of a 9 year old bipolar child
800 mg of seroquel is the maximum dose and 1200 mg of lithium is what my 26 year old bipolar son takes. Please consider visting the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation (www.cabf.org) and joining a support group. As a mother of 2 bipolar children, that support group was a godsend for me. If your current doctor is dismissing your concerns, I would certainly find another psychiatrist. I fired more than one psychiatrist for similar reasons. It is important to be proactive in the treatment of your child and to become an advocate for him. My elder son was no doubt annoyed when I was his advocate, but as result, he has now learned to advocate for himself. As an adult bipolar, he owns his disorder, manages his medications, and collaborates with his psychiatrist on medication types and dosages.
Please feel free to contact me personally if you wish.
Upon reading this article I'm confused about the so-called expertise of the doctors in my community... My 78 year old father is in early part of Stage 7 of Alzheimer's and is also bi-polar. He has been having hallucinations and delusions for about 4 years as he has progressed rapidly through the various stages of Alzheimer's Disease. His gereontologist put him on 25 mg Seroquel about 2 years ago, and left it at that until we moved to a different state 18 months ago. It seemed to make no difference in my father's moods. Upon arriving in this new location, Dad's new neurologist who claims to be an expert on Lewie Bodies Disease (and said Dad doesn't have that but has straight Alzheimer's) put Dad on Zoloft and increased Dad's Seroquel to 75 mg. All this seemed to do was make Dad's moods easier but still delusional and he still has hallucinations. Now, the licensed owner of the Alzheimer's Day Care Clinice where I take my father has recommended we take Dad off of Seroquel and put him on Depakote. We took Dad in to see his GP. While there, Dad went into one of his outrages, yelling, cursing, hitting -- the doc said, sure, we'll try what you want and oh by the way, I'll sign those nursing home papers, too. My question: why would a gereontologist and a neurologist AKA an Alzheimer's expert put a dementia patient on Seroquel if it's known to be so hazardous???
YES, YES a million times YES!!! The two largest complaints about seroquel is excessive weight gain and diabetes. I've been on Seroquel for over 4 years now. I'm on a extremely high dose of seroquel so that increases my risks even more and I still say yes, the rewards far outweigh the risks. I have been warned about the side effects from day one, my doctor, my pharmacist and AstraZeneca(I subscribe to the Seroquel newsletter). I was already over weight when I started on seroquel and up to that point it was so easy to blame the lithium, depakote, anti-depressants, etc. for my weight. And, yes, I gained more weight after starting seroquel and again it was so easy to blame the medications. I ballooned up to 250 pounds. Then a few years ago my doctor informed me that it was believed that Seroquel raised a person's risk of diabetes and if someone was already at risks that they should stop taking Seroquel. Because of my weight I had an increased risk so my doctor told me I had to choose, loose weight or stop taking Seroquel. I was terrified, not of the risk of diabetes, but of the thought of loosing what Seroquel gave me, my life!! I am med resistant and almost all other drugs on the market do not work for me. My life was pure insanity before Seroquel and it gave me my life back, I did not want to loose that.
Guess what? I lost the weight, 94 pounds! No crazy diets, no starving myself, just common sense eating, green tea and 15-20 minutes of exercise 3-4 days a week. If I can do it, anybody can do it! People have to start taking responsibility for their diagnosis and any doctor will tell you that part of recovery is proper diet and exercise.
Seroquel, along with Zoloft, has been a miracle drug for me. Having been diagnosed Bipolar I in 1974, I was told the miracle drug then was lithium, so I took it thereafter for 30 years. Along the way I tried Depacote with it which is what caused the weight gain and my hair to come out, so I ditched that! I also tried Tegretol which gave me terrible heartburn and double vision, so I ditched that. I also had to take tricyclics along with the lithium, so I went through all of them. Then came Wellbutrin, and that was a weight gainer along with signs of dyskinesia. In 1974 my lithium level went high and I told the therapist that my doctor of 25 years that had just died would have never let it get that high but he said it was all right. Just a month later I was rushed to the emergency room with a level of four times the lithium that I should have had. My kidneys had failed and were unable to secrete it. I had a stroke, could not speak and all the things that go with a stroke. I was hospitalized for three weeks. After recovering I was placed on 300 mg. of Seroquel, which, I will confess, initially made me sleep "until next Tuesday" as the saying goes. Nevertheless, I was improving, but in a couple of months I need medication adjustment. Thanks to my internist, he took over, and for the past four and one half years I have been taking 600 mg. of Seroquel and 100 mg. of Zoloft at night, and am doing the best that I ever had since 1974. He checked out everything and found that I had low potassium (which I believe Seroquel might cause) but he fixed that. He did find my blood sugar higher than it had been, so I was put on Zocor, and that fixed that. The main thing that he did find was that TAKING LITHIUM FOR 30 YEARS had enlarged my hyperparathyroid glands and they were producing 3X as much calcium as they should be, and that I had large nodules on each side of my thyroid gland. Thanks to God above, the nodules were benign and last summer my hyperparathyroid glands and thyroid gland were removed. So, medication was added to replace that. IN SPITE OF ALL THE ABOVE, I STILL SAY SEROQUEL AND ZOLOFT ARE MIRACLES FOR ME. I have not gained weight on those drugs; I was already 30 lbs. overweight, I believe, from that Wellbutrin. (I believe that is a stimulant drugs and people should watch it). The excessive sleep adjusted itself and I sleep my eight hours so peacefully and restfully. I wake up and say "Good morning, Lord!" instead of "Lord, it's morning!" and ready to start my day. Oh, I have read all about Seroquel from all the sources, but I thank the good Lord for it, one day at a time.
As a modern drug it is one of the best in my view. However, its aim is to 'slow the mind' and its main real benefit is to promote sleep when stressed. If sleep is over-promoted and the dose is NOT titrated down quickly as stress levels are lowered, the body's metabolism is unnecessarily slowed and hence we gain weight. It is NOT a drug that should be taken other than as a temporary means of 'chemically' treating a stressed person to overcome the natural stress reaction. A 10mg dose has been requested of AstraZeneca.
For example, whilst I now do not take any drugs after many many years on the poison we call Lithium Carbonate !!! I now occasionally use a half of the 25mg minimum dose when flying. That way it will keep me out for 6 to 8 hours. Ideal for a long flight. Yes it does have a hangover.
I hope this helps others to see quetiapine as a good but temporary expediant.
I have been taking 600 mg of Seroquel for approx 2 yrs to treat my symptons of
Bipolar. Doctors initially prescribed 50 mg daily, slowly increasing dosages of 100 mg daily until finally, I stopped sleeping all day.
In gained 40 lbs in about 2 weeks. Was diagosed with h. pylorii for my stomach problems. AND then my thyroids bottomed out and am now being treated with .75 mmg of Synthroid. I am also on 30 mg of Paxil to treat depression.
I was never, ever sick. Now breaking bones another matter. All of this came about when I had a nervous breakdown while on vacation over 2-1/2 yrs ago. I am now 54, slowly shedding unwanted weight (which is hard on a back that was broken @ 19). All I can say is that I sound like a hypercondriac (sp).
I don't remember how much serquil I was on but I took it for 6 weeks and gained 30 pounds. After having my blood work tested I was considered border line diabetic. This was all really new to me. Now I take depakote. I am still overweight. I haven't gained anymore though and my blood sugar levels are normal. Oh it messed up my thyroid too. I now take 25 mg of synthroid. I think seriqul caused ALL of it.
My doctors seemed to think it was the antidepressant I was taking that had caused my weight gain. As a matter of fact, they had me on 30 mg Lexapro, then changed me over to Paxil. Interesting that you also had the thyroid problem. My blood work has not shown any problems regarding sugar diebietis (I need a dictionary - spelling horrible). My biggest problem now is the reoccuring h. pylori, which I have discovered is linked to Hishimoto (thyroid dies). Interesting ??? I could probably become a lab rat if they needed one. Thank you for your response.
I am currently down to 50 mg of seroquel a night and tonight will not be taking any. I went through a horrible year with a psychiatrist in the next town over. I wish I could figure out where to report her to. The only good thing she did was discover I had a thyroid problem. Now the question is did the lithium she had me on at the beginning cause the hashimotos disease, or did the hashimotos disease cause the anxiety problems that sent me to her in the first place?? I had a family dr think I might have had a thyroid problem but when all her tests said otherwise I decided that I would not go on her suggestion of visiting an Endocrinologist.
I had a horrible anxiety attach which lasted quite a few day a year later.
My family doc put me on one of the regular anxiety/depression meds, lexapro I think.
After a year I went to the Psychiatrist to find out if this would be something I would need to be on the rest of my life or if I could come off of it (thought she might know better than my regular family doc).
The psych. told me within 15 minutes of my visit, without any type of testing, that I was Bipolar. Hit me like a wall. Started me on all kinds of meds. Lithium, sleeping pills, anti anxiety pills, etc. She would also tell me when I was going to "cycle" and feel bad, so that then I would wait to feel bad which of course made me feel bad and a have to go back to her for another $280 visit. For the next year I went through all kinds of meds and feeling worse and worse as the year went on. I had 3 year old twins and a husband who tried to be as understanding as he could, and a large business that I run with my husband. life was horrible.
Well, as my insurance did not cover this particular dr and she didn't want to discuss the fact that now that my thyroid condition was discovered could i come off the meds or try to... a few times she told me I could just stop taking the medicine and see how I would feel... (you cannot just stop taking these meds, must be weened off slowly, i was in hell).
I went to see a psychiatrist in town that my insurance did cover. They begged me to not go back to this other dr and started weening me off this medicine. it has taken a few months and the worst side effects have been trouble sleeping because she had me on so much stuff to take at night and it all contained sleeping aids.
So my only need now is to have some good sleeping pills so I can get a few good nights sleep each week. I also keep on hand some anti-anxiety pills which I haven't needed to take in quite a while.
So it will be interesting to see what happens with my thyroid once I am off all the other medicines. I have been feeling much better lately. My husband said it was nice to have his wife back. He said I look much less puffy... I haven't lost much weight yet in pounds but I can say my clothes definitely fit better now. All those meds did make me gain a lot of weight. I was 135, got pregnant with twins and was 197 when I delivered, lost some of that baby weight - down to 170 when they were three months old and then when i started the meds was back to 185 at my worst point. I ate better and got to 170 but have been stuck there for a while.
good luck and if I have learned anything it is to get a second opinion.
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I was put on it in 2006 during an IP. I was on it for 6 weeks.
In that 6 week period, I gained 15 lbs. on it (no change in food or activity).
Doc took me off after developing a fever of unknown origin for 4 days, accompanied by stiffness in neck and achiness in the calves.
It did knock me totally out when I took it. It left me hungover each morning. I couldn't put 2 words together much less make a sentance for the first few hours upon awakening and even after that.. my mind was just barely working.
It has been a godsend for a lot of folks I know and so it helps a lot of people. It did not help me, except to make me sleep. Otherwise, it caused dysfunction in my daily living and I developed physical adverse reactions the Doc felt strong enough to have it removed.