Earlier I had been prescribed 50mg of quetiapine (aka Seroquel) for the night to help me sleep (I suspect it may make no difference, but I’m taking it anyway).
During this appointment I had the complaint that I’ve been feeling unpleasant feelings when I wake up during the night, and early in the morning. So she increased it by another 50mg of quetiapine to a total of 100mg, but this 50mg was a prolonged release version. Is that a normal amount for schizophrenia? I’ve seen people here mention 8 times higher dosages (800mg of quetiapine).
Earlier I took 100mg of chlorpromazine daily during my 8-month stay at the hospital plus some time after that, and it had no effects or side effects whatsoever.
I also told I have no thoughts (a blank mind), and no feelings. To that she replied “it will take time for them to come back”. I’ve been a schizophrenic for about a year now, and not a single thought has popped to my head since the time I remember (I have a memory loss covering the period of onset), and I’ve felt none of my old feelings since (except in a few dreams, and according to the voices those were “fake”, fabricated feelings). My entire inner world is gone, except for the things produced by my schizophrenia (voices, inserted thoughts, and bad feelings that I haven’t felt before I got this schizophrenia).
I also had written 3-4 pages of text about the symptoms I have. She read ~1 page describing the bad feelings I’ve been feeling, but was not interested in reading the rest of the symptoms (she assumed she already knew them, but apparently didn’t, because she assumed I had thoughts and (old) feelings).
My doctor said the dose is at a certain level because of your metabolism and how your body processes the drug. That’s why some people have low and some people have high doses. It’s not necessarily doping you up more, it’s getting meds to the right concentration to get them into your system so they can take effect.
This is why injections are better because it doesn’t go up and down in your system and you get the continuous slow release of the drug.
I wonder how can they tell the right dose then (100 or 800mg), from looking at the person, or? I’ve read that lower doses are supposed to help you sleep, and a higher dose targets schizophrenia, but I’m not sure in that.
Anyway, the 50mg increase in quetiapine has not made any difference; my sleep is the same and I still feel the unpleasant feelings during night / early morning. I also feel them during daytime, except when doing certain things, but I forgot to mention it to the doctor.
I’ve never felt the sedative property of it either. That’s probably because my inner world is gone (which also means there’s no irritation or agitation to sedate).