Misc Is prescribing quetiapine as a sleep aid acceptable?

[5 meo dmTed]

I don't know why this thought came to fruition at 6:00 am crashing from a 4 day meth binge, but nonetheless. My family suffered the sudden loss of my 53 year old mom on the 28th of October, so the whole family is obviously shook up. I use stimulants for days if I can't sleep. I just won't have that laying still until you're frustrated enough to strangle a kitten since my first opiate withdrawal.. But I'm flying off topic yet again. My dad is having sleep problems as well, so he went to his doctor, whom swiftly wrote a prescription for 50-100mg quetiapine at bedtime, as needed.. I have posted of my mental issues before, I am bipolar, paranoid schizo-effective with severe depressive tendencies. My psychiatrist has me taking 25mg quetiapine 3x daily, and 10mg olanzapine at bedtime, and this is for control of SEVERE psychosis.. Which brought me to my browser, trying to find some information on quetiapine, in depth. I just lost my mum, I don't want my dad gone too now. So turns out, there's really not much info at all out there about seraquel. I really am wondering what the hell his doctor is thinking here , I understand this is not uncommon, but I can't be alone in thinking that the use of antipsychotic drugs in cases with no apparent psychosis is unhealthy... I am personally a product of just that mistake; my pediatrician put me on risperidone when I was 8, for sleep issues caused by dextroamphetamine therapy for ADHD. This, my team of psychiatrists and doctors has deduced, is the reason for my current psychotic mental state.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

Quetiapine (Seroquel) is prescribed for both psychosis/schizophrenia/bi-polar, etc and insomnia. It is actually a very effective sleep aid.

Usually the doses and formulation is different depending on why it's being prescribed. For insomnia, people are given the instant release so the medications hits them all at once, causing the drowsiness that helps to induce sleep. I was scripted Quetiapine in detox to help me sleep, 100mg's. It's a great sleep med.

There are serious possible side effects of people kinda loosing their mind a bit when taking it but that is usually only when somebody is on high doses. At the dosage your father is at, all it will do is help him get the sleep he needs.

 

[5 meo dmTed]

See that's what I'm worried about. I also suspect he's gone back to old habits since I found the ball of 'caine and the torched lightbulb in his drawer; I'm fairly sure he's already mentally unstable as is, he shows extreme compulsive behavior, sometimes bordering on manic, but the mans a 51 year old biker - emotions are for your old lady, you're there to take care of business, talking about your problems makes you soft. :/ it was the subject of a few household arguments. But again, I'm floating into tangents. Damn speed. Anyhow, I was mostly just worried about the seemingly careless dosing (his doc said "if one doesn't work, take a second." Exact quote, I was there. He's also taking champix, valium, and hydromorphone) I'm guessing it could become problematic if taken for too long? He was advised not to take them every day, but has been since he got them last wednesday. And they are the same generic film coated brand I take for my issues, which just raises another red flag. I think you can probably tell from my rambling, I need sleep, and I'm stressed as hell.. It's just kind of ramping, you know? Mums dead, now dad's gonna neck himself with everything the doctors feeding him. That's what keeps me up at night.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

^^^

Yeah that is a tough situation. Unfortunately you can't make your dad do anything he doesn't want to do. People really need to want to stop and get better on their own. The only thing you can do is be there for him and support him.

Very sorry to hear about your mom. Did she pass recently? Is that why he's in a rough shape?

 

[moe.ron]

I understand your concern but in general 50-100 mg of seroquel is not a very large dose. I was started at 150 mg myself, and even then did not find it sedating enough to ensure sleep (however I have major insomonia problems. I take 30 mg of mirtazepine, 300 mg of seroquel, and 150 mg of trazadone everynight, although the seroquel is primarily to treat my bipolar). Also taking 1-2 pills of a particular sleeping medication as needed is a normal prescribing method of sleeping pills, so although it may seem careless, his doctor actually did know what he was doing in that regard. Quitepine could be problematic in the long run in that he will build a tolerance and may experience a discontinuation syndrome, but the valium and hydromorphone hes on would be more problematic in that regard, in my opinion. You are in a better position then I to come to the right conclusion to what I am about to say, but once again in my opinion, doctors know better then their patients on issues like these. My advice if you are looking for any, is to talk to your fathers doctor. I bet if you could talk to him one on one over the phone he would be more then happy to address any of your concerns and explain why he is doing what he is.

One final thing I wanted to mention is that combining stimulants and antipsychotics can result in an unpleasent "stimulant-antipschotic syndrome" (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898838/) resulting in major dyskinesia, akathisia and dystonia. This will not happen to everyone but it happens to me. I would not wish it on anyone, but it does seem to be a minority who experience this

 

[tweex]

I was on 200mg for psychosis once. Slept 15 hours a day, and was never well rested.

Benzos are a better sleep aid, and they still don't produce restful sleep.

I'm a way bigger fan of trazodone+melatonin for chronic use, and diphenhydramine for short term. Also ar/modafinil reduces your need for sleep a good bit.

 

[blight12]

Having used Seroquel for 2 years for its full range of uses (stimulant blocking, comedown assistance and sleep) I would say its incredible effective in cancelling out stimulants and very good for sleep as well.

If those two items are big issues in your life then it will help, however if you simply need sleep without any drug abuse or stimulant use / psychosis being involved its overkill and will have a negative impact on your life in the long terms.

Secondly, in dosages 300mg and below it works well for both stimulant block and sleep, but above that weird symptoms can occur.

The freakiest one is the inability to swallow, almost causing a choking gagging effect, and is incredibly unpleasant.
It feels like your throat muscles have ceased functioning for a while and it cause panic as shit gets stuck on your throat.
This is documented and you can look into it. Trust me, it feels 500% worse then it sounds on paper.

Lastly, it drops your blood pressure quite a bit and always causes an increased heart beat for me including wanting to feint when used in situations that exacerbate that like lack of sleep, food, alcohol use etc.

 

[QUARE]

Im prescribe Quetiapine 25 to 50 mg for insomnia and it works fine. I never got bad symptoms from it the next day neither but I thought 50 to 100 mg was a bit high for insomnia, people generally take 25mg and get knock out. Anyway I have been prescribe it for about 6-7 months now and I find it pretty helpful and can be useful for other stuff, like drugs comedown or something like that, abord a badtrip. etc.

[Little note for your self: Please make paragraphs when you write long text like that, its much more easier to read, I normally skip thread that are written that way but I wanted to help you. So anyways I bet Im not the only one who like paragraphs its just very easier to read.]

 

[DubNaut]

I am going to completely disagree based on an experience 8 years ago.
was prescribed this for sleep (insomnia), but only BECAUSE i was also MOODY or DEPRESSED (bipoloar) too. etc

Not fixing the dot, but let's just throw it all into one and zombie etc.
I have a few persons who take regularly for sleep and anxiety problems, not so pretty.

Blatantly it should not be prescribed or used out of poor choice in alternatives to directly amend an specific 'issue', when it is capable of treating much more. IMO

 

[blight12]

Agreed, Seroquel for sleep issues only is like amputating your arm to cure an ingrown fingernail. Way overkill. Of course big pharma and they GP lackeys are happy to prescribe it for this "off label" use to maximize revenue.