Quetiapine and grapefruit

Hi Nick, stay well clear of grapefruit in anyform, I have also read and experienced that coffee also worsens side effects. What dosage are you on and is it the XR version (slow release)?

It would be a shame with coffee as well. The tablets are 100 mg each. I have started with a half a tablet in the evening to a tablet (100 mg) in the morning and evening.

My consultant tells me that this is not a high dosage but I am already on 15 mg Mirtazapine makes me sleep for 9 hours and I am naturally concerned that I won't be able to wake up at all.

I recently took 30 mg in the morning. An hour latter I started geeling tired and 2 hours later I went out to a choir practice and on the way and for the first part I was like a zombie. Someone had to help me on to the bus and when I was there I couldn't concentrate on the music.

My consultant tells me that this is not the full dosage. I hate to think what would be the effect of that.

Hi Nick,

Quetiapine (seroquel) should be taken at night, before you go to bed, as it is can make you very drowsey. If you take the XR version, then you will also feel the sedating effects during the morning. I am currently on 300mg and have been told by my Doc that I need to get down to 150mg, but to do this over a 2 week period. Yes I can understand you feeling like a zombie, I feel like that every morning when I wake up, but this will get better slowly, but from experience as I have been on Quetiapine for many years that you do feel pretty wacked in the morning. Quetiapine is given in different strengths depending on you diagnosis, for Bi-Polar around 200-300mg, Phychosis up to 800mg, and sleeping disorders only raround 50mg.

I am taking 100 mg tablets. I have bipolar. My general practitioner ( referred to as GP in the UK). My consultant told my GP to increase the consumption gradually to 1 tablet morning and evening. Even taking a half tablet this lunchtime left me comatose (although I was quite tired anyway).

Hi Nick, phew, dont know what to say, taking 1 in the morning and even at lonchtime, no wonder you are almost comatose. Do you take any other meds, for example in addition to taking Quetiapine, I also take Epitec, which is also a mood stabiliser, but doesnt make one sleepy, well I hope not, as well as 300mg Luvox at night, as well as 10mg Zolpidem, so you can see I am like the walking dead in the morning, but I have to just put on a happy face and fake that alls well, then around lunchtime I start to feel ok. But its a small price to play to keep the terrible depression away. Rob

Yes, I am on Mirtazipine and I discovered very definitely that it was sedative. I was on 30 mg in the evening and I found that I I wanted to sleep 12 hours and with half of the tablet I sleep 9 hours. Well, I want to have a life as well as experiencing depression.

My consultant told me that the 30 mg amount was the recommended dosage. Well, he didn't seem to know the sedative effect. And this is now in addition to the Q.

I am seeing my consultant on Thursday and I hope to discuss all this. Nick

Hi Nick, if you stop your meds the depression will return with a bang, then you wont have a life, all of us whom suffer from depression, especially major depresion disorder have to accept that the various meds mostly always have side effects, you just have to find the correct one. Sedation comes with alot of them, and I have tried some that are not sedative, but then the side effects are insomnia and nausea etc, so its a trade off. What ever you do please dont stop taking your meds, you will have a better quality life on meds than being tortured by your disorder. Respectfully, Rob

I know that! But I have only been on quetiapine for a short time - and my consultant says that he will leave it up to me until I see him. And by the way it is me taking the medication. When I discovered that Prozac was affecting my libido I got my pdoc to change it to mirtazapine. Nick