Seroquel? Questions?

Hi guys I’m back from the hospitalll they decided not to keep me in impatient for now

They put me on Seroquel now too. I have a couple questions… first, the doctor said I take it when I need it. But how fast acting is this medication? Does it even work well? I think I’m only on 12.5mg

I just got put on it a few weeks ago added to my risperdal and i found near instant relief its a good drug next time i see my doctor im going to ask to switch my risperdal to seroquel. 12.5mg is a small dose so i dunno how well that will work.

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Seroquel acts pretty fast and only has a half-life of about 8 hours so it’s out of your system pretty quick, too. I used to be on 800 mg a day and I thought it worked pretty well.

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12.5 mg? Wha? I’m pretty sure the lowest dose is 50 mg unless you’re on a weird form of it.

If they said take it as needed then they aren’t giving it to you as an AP, they’re giving it to you as a benzo substitute. At low doses it is a sleep aid and basically knocks you out. It does not function as an antipsychotic at low doses. It takes around an hour to kick in, for me anyways.

Alright- Thank you everyone! I noticed my Cloneazepam actually helps a lot when it comes to my anxiety/paranoia, but it also makes me feel a bit like a veggie. How long does it take for those medications to stop knocking you out all the time?

Thats a shame it doesn’t function as a antipsychotic at a low dose. I think the psychiatrist said something about taking two pills? I guess he was hoping it’d help with my delusional thinking when it get it

It is mainly a antihistamine at that dose and maybe a1 adrenergic blocker (anti anxiety affect lowers heart rate so you don’t feel physical effects of anxiety so much), as the dose goes up it can help depression and in the few hundreds and beyond it is supposed to help as antipsychotic. Whether someone is a poor or fast metabolizer can also make a difference in ones dose. Poor metabolizers with some antipsychotics only need 50% of starting or average doses, and fast metabolizers require more mg’s. But that’s a tiny dose. It probably will chill you out or knock you on your butt. Seroquel is sedating at low dose and even more so with the immediate release which you were likely prescribed. The XR version is supposed to be not as sedating and it is a 24 hour medication. If you are going to end up switching that may be a better choice. Some people like the immediate release due to the sedating factor because they have sleep problems.

I didn’t have a good experience w klonopin personally. It’s the benzo w the longest half life and is known for having a “hangover” effect that leaves you feeling drowsy and out of it. I much prefer Ativan (lorazepam) which does not have this effect on me.

If they said take as needed it’s not being intended for AP use. You’d need to be taking it on a regular basis, an AP wouldn’t work otherwise. Also, for seroquel to work as an AP, it needs to be around 300 something mg, just to give you an idea of how small the dose you’re on currently is lol. Nowhere near therapeutic level.

As for the drowsiness thing, it really depends on the person. For some people the drowsiness goes away after a time, usually after a matter of weeks. For some people, the drowsiness never goes away.

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I’ve been on Seroquel 400 x 2 daily for over a decade. I didn’t notice much effect from it, but I missed a few days of it recently, and I was more anxious than I cared to be. Seroquel makes some people drowsy, but not me. I would say it’s been a good medicine for me.

This isn’t necessarily true. I know several of us are on a PRN dose of haldol. It definitely still works as an AP.

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I’ve never heard of this :confused: And looking it up I seemed to find that haldol as needed is also given to soothe anxiety/aggravation flare ups. I can’t find anything that says it works as a functional AP if only taken on occasion and knowing its mechanism that doesn’t make sense to me either.

Are you on any other medications?

I’m all haldol. Haldol oral daily, shot every 3 weeks, and oral as a PRN. I use it when my hallucinations get bad. Usually about 10mg.

Yes the regular haldol is what is working as your AP. The as needed is just for acute flare ups.

Yeah, that’s the point of a PRN? But it’s working as an AP.

No, it makes you very sleepy and calm, which then basically takes away the stress feelings that are activating the psychosis. A benzo will do the same thing despite having no antipsychotic properties.

If you were to stop taking the regular shot and oral and try to only take the haldol as needed you would see what I mean. (Not that I am suggesting that!!)

It doesn’t make me sleepy or calm. And I think I’ll trust a real doctor over your Google skills to tell me if it’s as an AP or not. Thanks.

I’m like dead sleepy rn because I’m on my sleep meds so I’m not explaining this as well as I’d like to sorry :sob:

Seroquel and haldol are generally given as needed when doctors don’t want to give benzos. A lot of doctors don’t like giving benzos.

Ok…I’m not trying to be aggressive or anything, I’m always open to learning new things. You often seem to take offense to stuff I say.

I know in hospitals sometimes when people go there and are acutely psychotic they’re sometimes given way higher than normal doses of things to bring them back down initially so maybe that’s what you’re referring to. I’m really curious as to how that works as in neuropsychopharm we were taught that antipsychotics must be taken regularly/build up in the bloodstream.

I guess it’s better to be on a maintenance preventative dose all the time rather than to have to constantly be taking high doses when emergencies happen.

I’m on Klonopin. That’s what I take for anxiety and stress related flare ups. When my AP isn’t cutting it, I take more haldol. As an AP.

I take offense to your I can Google so I’m a medical professional approach to these boards.

I majored in neuroscience and minored in psychology. I’m not anywhere near a doctor in expertise but I’m not google educated. Thanks for assuming and being unpleasant. I try to share things I learned in school to be of help to people.