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Asked by Victoria, Toronto, Canada
I suffer from major depression and panic disorder, and one of the medications that have been prescribed is Seroquel XR 50 mg. Why does it knocks the living daylights out of me all day long?
I take it at around 6 p.m. to be in bed at a decent time, and the next day I could literally sit anywhere and pass out. I feel extremely exhausted. I know of some people who are up to 1,600 mg of the same, and they go on the regular day like nothing.
I also have Cipralex 30 mg daily, and I have been getting headaches and dizziness almost daily.
Is this a combination of meds? It's just so frustrating to me feeling so crappy with some of the side effects that these medications have given me, and my psychiatrist keeps telling me to just keep taking them until my system gets used to it. I can't seem to get used to them though.
Mental Health Expert
Dr. Charles Raison
Psychiatrist,
Emory University Medical School
Dear Victoria,
I am sorry to hear of your troubles. In fact, nothing you have written is out of the ordinary.
Some people can take very large doses of a psychiatric medication and other folks can't even tolerate the lowest dose of the same drug. Seroquel (generic name quetiapine) can really make people feel sleepy; that's one of its most common side effects.
In fact, many doctors use it as a sleeping pill for just that reason, and often at exactly the dose you are taking -- 50 mg. Cipralex (generic name escitalopgram) can also make some people sleepy, although generally this is much less likely to happen than with Seroquel.
Cipralex and Seroquel can cause dizziness.
Serotonin antidepressants such as Cipralex can also cause headaches. Interestingly, these types of antidepressants are sometimes used to treat headaches. Same with Seroquel.
Obviously I haven't evaluated you in person, so I'm not in a position to make definitive medical recommendations, but let me speak generally about the types of side effects you are suffering.
The key issue, which isn't addressed in your question, is how long you have been on the medications. Many side effects associated with psychiatric medications improve with time. This is especially true of nausea with antidepressants; it's worse in the first few days to a week and then goes away in most people. Dizziness also often improves over the first few weeks of treatment.
Headaches, in my experience, are more problematic. They often persist.
So, if you have been taking the medicines for a week or two, then I would encourage you to hang in there and see whether things improve. If you have been on these medications for a month or more, then in my experience, your situation is not likely to improve. If the side effects are as bad as the condition you are trying to treat, then it is usually worth considering other options.
There are a couple of other key things I don't know about your situation.
If these are some of the first medicines you have tried for your depression and panic, then I would encourage you to talk seriously with your doctor about switching to other medications that are also effective. Many times I've seen people who were completely unable to tolerate one antidepressant who could take another without any side effects at all.
On the other hand, some people seem unable to tolerate any psychiatric medications. This can be a very serious problem, given how disabling conditions such as depression and panic are.
If you have tried many medications in the past without success, then it becomes more important for you to try to hang in there with the Cipralex and Seroquel if you are early in treatment. It's really important to give them a chance to work, because lots of other things have failed.
Finally, many studies show that psychotherapy is as effective as medications for treating both major depression and panic disorder. If you are one of those folks who just can't tolerate psych meds, therapy might be the way to go. But if you do this, make sure you go to a therapist who has experience in specifically treating panic disorder.
Good luck. I hope things improve.
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