My doc touted Seroquel as mainline mood stablizer on October 2. He wasted no time giving the med to me, and telling me it would stop the mania. It did stop the mania, and mine was super bad. Time will tell how it goes from here, but I also have no depression.
Actually feel better than ever.

I'm bipolar and I've been on Seroquel for about a week now and the effects have been nothing short of revolutionary. My illness has diminished from being florid to almost non-existant.

I've been on Zyprexa and had some positive benefits, but nothing on the scale of that I'm experiencing on Seroquel.

Please don't be hasty in dismissing Seroquel. So far, it's making my life much more enjoyable and manageable.

I know what you're saying, but Seroquel has been working for my bipolar disorder for eight years now with minimal side effects. It would be stupid for them to market it as a mood stabilizer like Lithium, but it seems reasonable to suggest that it could work for bipolar psychosis or mania. Will it be marketed as a mood stabilizer for sure?

seroquel for *acute* bipolar mania? i can see it. seroquel for depression? maybe if a complete nullification of emotion, motivation and energy makes you feel happy. i'd still hate to see desperate, depressed people be prescribed this as the "new" answer for their suffering. the very thought of this drug makes me shudder- loved the tics in the neck and right leg too.

I took seroquel (and zyprexa early on 1996-2000) as a sleep aid.It did knock me out for a good sleep but had adverse side effects and took 8 weeks to titrate down and get off without insomnia.

The stuff IS addictive in the sense that there is severe withdrawl with insomnia.

agreed Daniel. The worst part is, when people go off seroquel and experience insomnia everyone assumes it's a return of their "mania"- and doctors encourage this conclusion. then the patient is warned never to go off the anti-psychotic drugs because they clearly "need" them on a daily basis. in reality it's withdrawal, and withdrawal is hell and can absolutely feel like mixed state dysphoria.

Speaking of Seroquel. Has anyone on this site who has been taking Seroquel for any extended period of time experienced vision problems?

I have only taken it for 3 weeks, but one of the first side effects I had and still have is blurred vision, some days more than others, it is hard to focus to read. There is also a cataract side effect that could be ruled out by an eye doc.

Ugh, that confirms my suspisions~I thought maybe it was my age (a whopping 32) or maybe from staring at the computer day in and out but my vision has gone from 20/40 to about 20/70 in 3 years and I now have to wear reading glasses.

I think this may be a side effect the makers of Seroquel has not disclosed to the public yet.

Angie,
All you need to do is go to the pharmacy and ask for the prescribing information that comes along with their bottles of (any)the med, or go online. It's there, just the diabetes gets on the news right now.

Page 5 of the PDF format of the prescribing info also shows the reference to bipolar depression.

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda/index.cfm?fuseaction=Search.Label_ApprovalHistory

Page 15 shows the cataract information, and let it be known it was tested on dogs.

Go to that website, type in med of choice and click on Label info...

Seroquel's is a new label approved October 20, 2006.

i used seroquel at 200 mg for over two years. it took me 4 months to quit because of insomnia. I ended up reducing the dose 25mg every two or three weeks before i had success. It was an expremely difficult time

Withdrawal comment:

I personally knew to white-knuckle the grocery cart with severe abdominal pain, and sweat pouring off of my forehead, as I started to blackout....to stick it out, because of my experience coming off of Prozac.

4 months of 75 mg a night of Seroquel, reduced to 50 mg. The last 2 weeks have been the most painful and unbearable med removal I have ever experienced, and I thought Prozac over a 6 month reduction was bad.
Pure human determination is what has allowed me to remain in the withdrawal process with focus.

oh no. I've just been on seroquel for about three weeks, and I've been at 400 mg for about one week. To Angie, I'm definitely experiencing vision problems; I see a kind of dark shadowy pattern across my vision that moves when I shift my eyes, and its kind of like a pixelated pattern that seems to be constantly vibrating. Or I could be more crazy, who knows. I think it's the Seroquel. And I'm probably going off it soon, since its not working that well, and I hate the 'weight gain' side effect. Not looking forward to this withdrawl thing...

I am bipolar I(mixed state) and have been on Seroquel AND Lithium (600mg and 900mg) for 7mo. now and this is the best cocktail my doctors have ever had me on ,even with the side effects. The Dr. started me with the above plus Celexa, and that antidepressant would throw me into a hypo-mania state, so we dropped that with a quickness. Since then it's been just the above combonation and aside from the extreme hunger, trouble swallowing and twitching/jerking, this therapy has suited me well. Sometimes a mild depression but managable with therapy. They sure have come a long way since the days of just Lithium or Lithium with stlazine/thorazine and all those days in the "Hospital"