Comments Please Seroquel - Anti hallucination drug

[cris]

Has anyone any experience of the anti-hallucination drug Seroquel ( quetiapine furmarate ). I have some from the GP yesterday. Gave Susan 1 tablet 25 mg - the GP said I could give 2 if I thought necessary - yesterday. Knocked her out but was not sure if it was the tablet. Gave 1 this morning and the same has happened. Very very unsteady, tired, going to sleep on chair, BUT she is still hallucinating badly and talking to things and mumbling rubbish and eyes are rolling into "top of head". Will fall if I am not there to watch / support her. I was thinking of halving the tablet but there seems no point if 1 does not stop the hallucinations. Letting her sleep it of at the moment.
But can anyone else comment please. I should add that the accompanying leaflet does not state this, anywhere.

cris

 

[ROSEANN]

Dear Chris
I cannot give you any help at the moment but my friends husband also went on Seroquel yeaterday for the same reasons as Susan so I will get back to you when I have had a word with her and see what she says.
All the best Roseann

 

[cris]

Thank you Roseann.
I will add I have / do always read the accompaning leaflets. Obviously 1 of the side affects is sleepiness & dizziness. Also up to 800mg a day can be taken. That is 32 times more than Susan has had . I sometimes wonder if the drug companies just want to push their product whatever. I know some can become immune to drugs.
cris

 

[Nebiroth]

I think that 25mg is quite a low dose for this drug - my dad was given it because of his terrible paranoid delusions, and he is on nine 25mg tablets a day, four in the morning and five at night. We did find that it was slightly sedating when he started but this stopped after a while. Although he does seem to sleep a little better at night, at least for now. I believe that this type of drug takes quite some time to have an effect on things like hallucinations/paranoia etc and that the change is likely to be a gradual fading away.

Of course everyone reacts differently, if you're worried, I;d go back to whoever prescribed it and voice your concerns.

I think that Quitipine is now the drug of choice, because there are questions over the safety some similar ones like Olanzapine for people with dementia.

 

[Skye]

John was put on a low dose of Quetiapine by the hospital doctor to calm his agitation and aggression when he had the UTI. It does seem to have worked to a certain extent, though he's still quite agitated. He's sleeping a lot better at night.

The NH are wanting to take him off it as soon as possible, they don't believe in medicating unless strictly necessary. I suppose if the aggression retirns they'll put him back on it.

 

[cariad]

seroquel

Hi, my mam is on it 150mg morning and night. At first she struggled to stay awake. Now she is used to it. She had one dizzy spell and now sleeps like a baby (thank God). She still has the delusions/hallucinations but is FAR less agitated (paces less and talks about them less). A good side effect is that it has constipated her (she was fecally incontinent at night before and now she isn't).

 

[Skye]

A good side effect is that it has constipated her (she was fecally incontinent at night before and now she isn't).

It hasn't had this effect on John, in fact since his UTI he's very loose -- like every pad change!

I was talking to the charge nurse this afternoon, and he's going to ask the GP about it.

 

[Nebiroth]

Thank you Roseann.
I will add I have / do always read the accompaning leaflets. Obviously 1 of the side affects is sleepiness & dizziness. Also up to 800mg a day can be taken. That is 32 times more than Susan has had . I sometimes wonder if the drug companies just want to push their product whatever. I know some can become immune to drugs.
cris

Cris I think you will find that 800mg is the abolsute maximum dose that would be given to an adult under 60 years of age with severe problems.

Usually for people over 60 (I think it's 60) the maximum is usually halved, because their bodies are slower at removing and breaking the drug down.

I think that you can become tolerant to most drugs, meaning you need a higher dose than before to get the same effect. The upside is that generally, side-effects also tend to disappear as you become tolerant too. That's particularly true of sedating effects I think.

 

[Margarita]

eyes are rolling into "top of head"

why not ring NHS Direct if that happen again for advice , or your out of hours doctor . Does not sound right that any medication should give that effect , even when someone having a hallucinating

When my daughter eyes rolled into "top of head she was having a fit / seizer

Read this http://www.seroquel.com/cons_sch/seroquel/understand_seroquel/understandseroquel.asp

 

[Lotti]

Hi Cris

My mum has been on Quetiapine for two years now, at a dose of 25 mg. At first they did used to knock her out and she was sleepy and because of this we were told to give her them at night. Her delusions had almost stopped only having them occasionally but now seems to be 'talking about her mum' again and that she is laid in bed poorly etc, although she died 36 years ago, I am starting to think she needs a higher dosage.
I hope this helps.

Regards - Lotti

 

[Margarita]

Hope you don't mind me saying lotti , I hear my mother mumbling to herself , talking to herself or someone I just let her get on with it as she dose not seem distress about it .

I am starting to think she needs a higher dosage

Just wondering why higher dosage is your mother geting distress about talking about her mother

 

[cris]

SEROQUEL is not approved for treating these patients

Thanks to everyone who has posted. But Margarita you are a star.
Looking at the link to Seroquel - their own web site - it states quoted below

SEROQUEL is approved to treat schizophrenia and to treat the depressive episodes and the acute manic episodes in bipolar disorder.

Elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis (having lost touch with reality due to confusion and memory loss) treated with this type of medicine are at an increased risk of death, compared to placebo (sugar pill). SEROQUEL is not approved for treating these patients.

So I will be going back to my GP surgery with a print out and sugest we look for something else.
Again many thanks to everyone and the star Margarita

I should add that the accompanying leaflet in the packet does not state this.

cris

 

[Lotti]

Yes Margarita, mum does get upset about 'the fact she has not seen her mum' and 'she must go and see her, will you take me?' I try to ignore the subject and once when she 'went wandering' dad found her walking away from the house where my gran used to live, she had tried to get in only to find the door locked (nobody at home) and dogs barking to which she replied 'they have got dogs now'

Lotti

 

[Margarita]

[I can't express how I always felt about using drugs for Schizophrenia to control dementia and NICE stooping last stages medication for AZ that is the right medication for AZ / dementia
make me so angry .

So I look at it in a Balance way as in , weighing out the risk in given them Schizophrenia drugs , age got to come into it , Susan is young





Oic lotti Yes your mother in a stage that she now needs 24/ 7 care as in keeping an eye on her , have been in that stage , but lucky for mum Exbiza took away those symptoms of thinking that I was my dad when see saw me, also seeing my father in her room , wondering the streets looking for me , when I was in the house with her .

It gets really hard on the carer if medication for AZ dose not work , or your running around them thinking of ideas like going with her

dad found her walking away from the house where my gran used to live, she had tried to get in only to find the door locked (nobody at home) and dogs barking to which she replied 'they have got dogs now'

so its care home or medication to knock them out or no medication loads of surport for the carer to keep love one at home ......... just have to weigh out the risk , age . if medication does not kill them for schizophrenia as the warning say they a risk above . AZ is going to get to them anyway. that way I say weighing out the risk




Sad hard
truth

 

[Taffy]

Hello Cris, a week ago while in hospital my dad started suffering from delusions and was put on Sequel 25mg daily it also had a very sedating effect on him. He was sleeping a lot and very unsteady on his feet.
Today, been DAY 8 he doesn't seem as sedated. I also researched Seroquel on the computer when the Dr told me he had put dad on this drug (the same site Margarita suggested to you )and was alarmed at the box warning concerning it's use with elderly dementia sufferers.
Dad has never been diagnosed with dementia and because of his heart and kidney failure and the cocktail of drugs he is on his system is toxic and all is symptoms mimic dementia, so I was concerned about the Seroquel and spoke to the Dr's and was told it was a very small dose.
I am really pleased that you are taking this up with your GP. Please post his reply to your concerns. Regards Taffy.

 

[Nebiroth]

Cris, about that warning you've put up. Yes, there's a lot of controversy about these class of drugs BUT "not recommended" is not the same as "must not be given".

Whoever prescribed it may well have felt that in their clinical judgement that the potential benefit outweighed the potential risk.

It all depends on the individual case they have in front of them. In our case the consultant explained (when we raised this concern) is that the risk was small, but the benefit could be large. In our case my father was making life intolerable with his continual paranoid delusions/obsessions with our "evil" neighbours. As regular readers of this forum will know

I believe that Quitiapine is, in this class of drugs, considered to carry a lower risk than the others (such as Olanzapine).

Our GP initially prescribed Olanzapine, we panicked when we got it and phoned, but he told us that the dose was very low and the risk slight, and the balance had to be sought between risk/benefit.

But as ever, any concerns should be raised with whoever prescribed it (or the GP).

 

[cynron]

After reading the same advice about this drug i took it up with the hospital where my husband was being treated and said i was not happy for this drug to be given to him ,he also had a heart problem. i was told by the man in charge that he knew best and it was an OK drug to treat my husband with.Do they read the same contraditions

Cynthia x x

 

[chip]

My husband was on quintepine 25mg it knocked him out he was very unsteady, he just babbled on ( he could talk at that time) was very drugged up. I had to call the day hospital who sent out a nurse. He also went very pale. The drug only lasted 4 hrs but i was glad when it worn off as he was a lot better off it than on it.

 

[cris]

Saw our usual GP this morning, and he defended the action of the other doctor in prescribing Seroquel. He explained that although not approved or it is to do with the "licencing of" but said it was accepted practice to use it in some cases and an alternative may well have the same side effects.
I said I was still concerned about the "....increased risk of death,..." and requested an alternative, which he has given. He said I could keep / use Seroquel if I wanted. Quetiapine I have reqested.
I will report the effects on Susan if wanted.
cris

 

[ROSEANN]

Dear Chris sorry I took so long to get back to you but I see you have had a few replies.
My friend said her husband was okay just very sleepy which was okay as the Doctor had told her to give the tablet to her husband at night so that he could sleep the worst off.
The hospital had priscribed the drug but her own GP phoned her to tell her about the side effects and that he would be keeping a close eye on him.
Not much help I`am sorry to say I hope everthing goes okay for you
Roseann