Kicking Seroquel

EDITORS NOTE: This is a cross-post from my Facebook wall. I thought it was relevant to this blog, so I'm sharing it out here for those who don't have me friended in FBLand. Enjoy!

From Wikipedia:
Quetiapine (pronounced /kwəˈtɑɪəpiːn/, kwe-TYE-a-peen), marketed by AstraZeneca as Seroquel and by Orion Pharma as Ketipinor, is an atypical antipsychotic used in the management of schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder, and used off-label for a variety of other purposes, including insomnia and anxiety disorders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetiapine

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I've been taking Seroquel regularly since October of 2007, when I was hospitalized for an acute bipolar episode (my second in three months). It was prescribed to help control my anxiety and to help control some of the symptoms of my episode. I started off taking 75mg in the hospital, and have gradually decreased that dosage to 25mg, which I take now every night at bedtime.

Seroquel's most noted side effect is sedation-- on which I am all too familiar with, as most drugs prescribed to treat bipolar disorder tend to have sedative effects. Right now, I am also taking very high doses of lithium, another drug used to treat bipolar disorder and one that also has a very sedating effect.

Right now, I feel as if I'm swimming through mud. I feel lethargic and half awake all the time, even though I get plenty of sleep (sometimes 10 hours a night).

My doc has recommended that I come off the Seroquel for the past six months. I even tried once before last fall, to no avail. At the dose I'm taking, I'm not getting much of the beneficial effect, but I'm getting plenty of the side effects (heavy sedation, weight gain, persistent appetite, etc.).

With spring coming and a recent increase in my lithium dose (and the crappy way I've been feeling the past several days), I've decided it's time to kick the Seroquel. I am currently taking seven medications to treat this disease (including the side effects from the medications), and I'd like to reduce that number.

The drug withdrawal side effects will be (and have been) pretty crappy, but I'll get through them after a few days. For now, I'll just expect the headaches, the nausea, and the bouts of insomnia. It's nothing I can't handle and nothing I haven't gone through before.

According to my last count, I've taken fourteen different brain drugs over the past fifteen years. This one will soon be another memory, too.