I’m hoping to do a switch to seroquel soon from 5mg olanzapine. I’m hoping 75-100mg seroquel will be enough, because I don’t think I can hold on to my job if I have to take higher doses than that.
That is even a low dose for a bipolar, SZ recommended minimum dose i think is 300mg a day, 100mgs works just as like a really strong sleeping pill
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Yeah, I guess you are right. But I’m very sensitive to drugs.
I’m stable on 5mg olanzapine although 10mg is the minimum recommended for sz. When I tried Latuda I was doing good on 20mg which is the minimum dose, but had to give it up because of serious side effect, chest pain.
I did try seroquel before too, but had to give it up after about 2 weeks because I couldn’t cope with the insomnia whitdrawal coming off olanzapine. But at least I didn’t get any positives those two weeks I tried it at 50-75mg.
I want to try again, but with a better plan to deal with the insomnia this time. But if the drug interferes with me keeping my job, I guess I have to go back to zyprexa or look for alternatives.
We can’t say that. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all for a certain diagnosis. Some people are often hypersensitive to medication. It doesn’t only depend on your diagnosis, but also on other things, like how well your liver processes meds. You know your body best. It may work. Or not. Or you can use a higher dose to deal with the first period of olanzapine withdrawal, and then slowly taper to the lowest effective dose for you.
What does your doctor think? What is the risk if the dosis is to low? Are you capable of upping it in time?
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Dr wants me to take 100mg because then it’s easy to up the dose from there. But last time I tried seroquel it hit me a bit already on 75mg, so I don’t know how me working fits into this.
I have virtually no positive symptoms, and haven’t had for a long time. Got some intrusive thoughts, but have successfully treated these by taking niacin 250-500mg daily.
Probably I’m sensitive to drugs and can get equivalent to normal effect from taking lower doses.
I guess I will have to just try and see.
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As long as you eat your avocados you will be just aok.
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300 mgs Seroquel = 20 mg Zyprexs so 100 mgs of Seroquel should be sufficiently.
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I’m the same with meds, I believe you. I think there is really no way to know than trial and error. And keeping a close watch of your symptoms. Hope it works out well. Good luck.
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I am on Seroquel, 800mg each night. It’s the highest recommended dose by the FDA, but my pdoc says I could probably go up to 1000mg, if needed.
I used to take Seroquel only to help me sleep. I was taking somewhere between 50mg and 100mg. Didn’t do anything for my mental health, just helped me fall asleep.
Now that I’m on only Seroquel, I am taking the maximum. I also take Lithium Carbonate, for my mood. I have schizoaffective bipolar type.
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Personally I know of 2 people diganosed with schizophrenia on low dose seroquel.
One taking 12.5mg seroquel. I know her online so I haven’t seen her presentation, she hasn’t been taking meds that long so I am little cautious she may relapse on that dosage but as of the moment she reports that she is stable. One of my personal friends was DXed with schizophrenia and is taking 50mg stable. He would probably meet DSM 5 criteria but given his presentation I would also question the relevance of his diagnosis. Would have to see what his presentation is like when he came off antipsychotics clean though.
Where I am seroquel appears to be favoured by GPs and since people with a low amount of positive symptoms don’t necessarily require a psychiatrist, they then see a GP and will commonly end up on seroquel. I’ve heard of a few people stable on low dose seroquel, not super common but still it happens. More commonly then with any other medication where I am at least. GPs also know it because it is used off label as a sleeping med and people with no symptoms will probably still complain of sleep issues.
If you don’t really need a AP to control positive symptoms then it actually makes a lot of sense. I have personally wondered in the past if it would be a better medication to take at a sub-reference range dosage. However since I’m already on a reduced dosage of latuda swapping would take me back to the drawing board to recalibrate. I also think it might make me put on weight.
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Thanks for your post. It makes me hopeful that some people pull it off.
I don’t know about my positives. The few times in the past before I accepted I was ill and quit cold turkey, symptoms would sneak up on me, like a month or more after quitting drugs I would lose my mind.
But this time I’m not quitting, just taking a low dose, which might work. And I have been more stable the last few years than since I got diagnosed.
I think I’m just sensitive to drugs and need a lower dose to achieve effects. @Blossom I don’t think I would survive 800mg After feeling what 100mg does to me. But I hope I find a dose that works for me like you do.
I might go for 100mg like the doc wants. If i split the dose and take it two times a day it might work. This should be ok with seroquel because of short half life.
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To me Seroquel 300 mgs is a very good option for sleep but I need the Clopixol LAI to fix my Schizophrenias psychotic features. Both drugs are very calming and that is what I mostly like them for. If you a very sensible to meds then I think that 100 mgs of Seroquel will do the.job.
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I am on 150 mg of seroquel but was on 100 mg but take two other antipsychotics. At my dose it acts more as an anti anxiety med.
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I was on 100mg of seroquel and .5 of rexulti for a good while. Then I went up to 1 mg of rexulti and discontinued the seroquel. Ended up having terrible mood swings and some mild paranoia. Now I’m on 3mg of rexulti and 2mg of risperidone. Tread lightly with low doses.
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Yes these same people make me very hopeful also. Likewise I am hopeful for you and it’s really encouraging to see that there are other people who out there aren’t giving up and are willing to troubleshoot finding better solutions. I don’t necessarily believe in just accepting everything, because ultimately your doctors and clinicians don’t live your life nor will they understand your subjective experience. That is not say you need to disagree with them but simply be willing to advocate for yourself which it sounds like you are doing.
It’s super scary making med changes but you do learn a lot both about yourself and the medications in the process. It has personally helped me develop insight. What people lack most about improving their illness is curiosity. Which I think everyone who participates on this forums has within them. They say curiosity killed the cat but if you explore the world in a safe way then you can accumulate knowledge over time. If you are never welling to explore then ultimately that limits your opportunities to learn. That said you don’t want to be making mistakes that end up leading you towards relapse as each relapse is life destroying in it’s own way.
You could for example start with 100mg and try that over the weekend, Friday/Saturday night. If you still don’t like it come Sunday then Sunday night you could go down to 75mg. It’s a bit of guess work trying to find the right dosage to start off with which also means there is no real reason to be attached to the starting dosage number. Ultimately the numbers aren’t so much important as that you are getting the therapeutic effect you are looking for. I would encourage you to think of it in that manner, what you are looking for is a particular ‘feeling’, a balance of cognition, lack of positive symptoms, absense of lethargy, negative symptoms, ect. In a sense you can only know the quality of the feeling that particular psychotropic medication provides through experimention. Be safe and take things slow.
I think it is better to listen to your doctor and prove them wrong then it is to disagree with them or not take their advice. They know what they are doing so siding them in the first instance is a wise risk adverse move. At the same time they don’t know you like you know you so.
Personally I like to negotiate with my psychiatrists and explain my rationale, bothing increase dosage, reducing dosage or swaping. However when it comes to the specifics of which medication and at what dosage I let them talk sense into me and pretty much just accept whatever they offer, at least in the first instance. If it’s not working subsequent to their recommendations then I will then suggest a different approach. You wouldn’t believe how many time I end up reading about stuff and like a month into it I figure out why their decisions made sense. When the give you numbers there is a rationale but that rationale is a bit of a greyline of thinking since in reality the semantics between 75 or 100mg isn’t much but there is a reason why they made that decision.
Either way if you can answer these questions within yourself it’s safe to assume that you are making an informed decision. Psychiatrists are always risk adverse so under where you a taking risks at your own discretion.
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