Mental Health Seroquel and long term effects ?

Therollingface

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Hello everyone ! my question is about seroquel and it's long term effect on the brain. I have Been on 150 mg of it for nearly Two years now And I am planning to trapper to zero in a month time , maybe a little longer , anyway I already know that seroquel leavs the body in 3 to 5 days but its long term effect will stay in brain quite longer , my question exactly is how long would it take for dopaminergic and serotoninergic neurotransmitters that seroquel blocks wich in this case would be 5HT2a , 5HT2b and D2 to turn back to normal , like before taking the drug basically , any information and experience would be greatly appreciated !
 
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I took antipsychotics (aripiprazole and risperidone) for 7 weeks total and taperred it off after week 4. I expirienced withdrawal symptoms for 3 months including parathesia and involuntary muscle movement. But after the 3 months I started to regain more and more of my emotions, creativity and am fine by now. Don't give up, even if there are a lot of side effects. Ask the people around you if you made any progress, because often times the individual doesn't see the changes and progression, which have been made.

Make music, read books, gain knowledge and do sports to gain input. Activities like this help you to form a better network and help to overcome the changes/"damage" done by these drugs.

Good luck. It will take time, but you will be fine afterwards. By the way, if you suffer from any mental condition you should look out for therapy or assistance, because the withdrawal can be quiet hard.
 
Quetiapine is not a very strong D2 antagonist so you don't have to worry about it causing Tardive Dyskinesia like most anti-psychotics can. What you really have to worry about with Quetiapine is not how it affects your neurotransmitters but how it affects your metabolism. It can cause type 2 diabetes in some people though it's not as much of a risk as with Olanzapine or Clozapine as 2 examples. It doesn't fuck with your hormones nearly as bad as say Risperidone so that's a plus.

You do have to taper though because in addition to the risk of rebound symptoms Quetiapine withdrawal can cause nausea and other unpleasant symptoms like many anti-psychotics can.
 
^ I didn't find Quetiapine to be too bad to taper off although i did some rebound insomnia, some irritability and abit of nausea. When i stopped taking my Risperidone all of a sudden though it was fucking hell on earth as all my symptoms came flooding back with a vengeance. But Risperidone is a very potent D2 antagonist and is known for causing horrible withdrawal symptoms. With Seroquel it's not a strong D2 antagonist at all and is mostly a Serotonin antagonist, H1 Antagonist (hence the sedation) and antiadrenergic.

But you should taper all psych meds slowly regardless if you have been on them any length of time.
 
^^^Yeah I think seroquel is much better than zyprexa. Zyprexa effects at least 17 receptor sub-types. Seroquel is about half. I would imagine though, that there would still be some insomnia, itching, and feeling wide awake thing happening but there is a possibility of schizo mimicking withdrawal too, including hallucinations among other things.

I don't know about OP's history and based on his/her dose I wouldn't suspect I psychotic illness but some people are more sensitive than others when coming off of this stuff. Withdrawal plus rebound symptoms can be a lot to deal with. If OP has a tendency towards psychosis then one should tread lightly and with caution. One should be aware of what is returning symptoms and what is withdrawal. There needs to be a distinction made so one can accurately assess what's really going on.

I may be considered 'sensitive' but I am not so sure about that. The only substances I have had much trouble with is opiates and benzos, and those were a walk in the park compared to zyprexa. I have come off of loads of other meds without much difficulty. I would suspect anyone who has been on APs for any amount of time would have some difficulty but some may not. Either way, better to be safe. For me, even if I up my dose and take more seroquel or zyprexa it doesn't help much at this point in time. Once the damage is done, you can't just go back on it, it doesn't always work like that. Screwy stuff for sure. I have been trying to figure this out, but this stuff doesn't make any sense to me at all. I'm coming back, but painfully slow.
 
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I took 600mg a day for about 8 months but it didn't agree with me. I only gained about 10 lbs on it which I didn't care about that.. However it was not helping me much so I tapered it at about a 25 mg reduction every few days or so (against doctors orders) and other than some insomnia I was fine. But it's different for everyone and I don't recommend doing what I did unless the doctor says it's ok. There is always a chance of worsening your psychotic tendencies and we all know how stressful that can be. That's just my personal experience.
 
^^^Yeah I think seroquel is much better than zyprexa. Zyprexa effects at least 17 receptor sub-types. Seroquel is about half. I would imagine though, that there would still be some insomnia, itching, and feeling wide awake thing happening but there is a possibility of schizo mimicking withdrawal too, including hallucinations among other things.

I don't know about OP's history and based on his/her dose I wouldn't suspect I psychotic illness but some people are more sensitive than others when coming off of this stuff. Withdrawal plus rebound symptoms can be a lot to deal with. If OP has a tendency towards psychosis then one should tread lightly and with caution. One should be aware of what is returning symptoms and what is withdrawal. There needs to be a distinction made so one can accurately assess what's really going on.

I may be considered 'sensitive' but I am not so sure about that. The only substances I have had much trouble with is opiates and benzos, and those were a walk in the park compared to zyprexa. I have come off of loads of other meds without much difficulty. I would suspect anyone who has been on APs for any amount of time would have some difficulty but some may not. Either way, better to be safe. For me, even if I up my dose and take more seroquel or zyprexa it doesn't help much at this point in time. Once the damage is done, you can't just go back on it, it doesn't always work like that. Screwy stuff for sure. I have been trying to figure this out, but this stuff doesn't make any sense to me at all. I'm coming back, but painfully slow.

I found Zyprexa to be absolutely the best drug for stopping mania and mixed states dead in it's tracks. It also gives me the least side effects by far of any anti-psychotic and works the fastest. I find Seroquel's anti-manic, anti-depressant and mood stabilizing effects to take a good week to kick in but Olanzapine starts working within a hour or 20 minutes if i am taking the wafers. I have never taken it long enough to get wd from it though
 
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