During one of my panic stricken calls to Doc about furniture flying around my living room courtesy of my child, he had called in a prescription for Seroquel. Seroquel is an atypical anti-psychotic and is used not only to eliminate psychosis but also just to calm erratic or violent behavior. At the time we had the incident, no matter how badly we needed the meds I was not in a place to leave my raging child and hop off to the drugstore to retrieve the prescription so we made it through sans meds. The prescription subsequently sat a week or two at the pharmacy until we decided maybe we should actually pick it up for those “just in case” moments.
Which brings us to now. As of late, Rye has been taking Abilify. This med worked great until it built up in Rye’s system, that is, at which point it had this nagging little problem of making him feel anxious and like he needed to move constantly. This is obviously quite counterproductive if you are trying to create peace and harmony within an individual so this med had to go. As we waited for the next appointment with Doc and therefore the next med, Rye started to feel “weird” again so I suggested we try the Seroquel. I mean, why not? It’s a low dose and we already had it and he probably just needed a little calming down for now and this should help take the edge off. And, having no idea what “weird” feels like, I was assuming there was an edge I was trying to eliminate.
So, we dispensed the med and waited. And, well, we fixed that edge. By golly, we flattened that edge like road kill. Within 30 minutes of giving Rye the pill he was dead out asleep on the floor. I mean he went from walking around talking about how weird he felt to flat out, laid out on the floor.
Ooops…gad… maybe that was a little too much. Is he ok? Ummm…is this what this med is supposed to do?
It turns out that, no, it doesn’t have that effect on most people but then Rye is extremely sensitive to all meds so it didn’t completely surprise me that this would happen. And, in a weird way, it did take the edge off.
Note to self…save the Big S for the real emergencies. At least we know it works.
5 Comments
Hi
I’ve found your blog via your comments at Furious Seasons. I’ve been a regular commenter at that site for over 3 years.
My daughter was mis dx bp at age 11 in 1999 and has suffered at the hands of each drug you’ll ever write about here, from massive side effects and now what is most likely brain damage/permanent psychosis.
Seroquel is a dangerous medication to use for agitation. Abilify actually increases agitation, and the need to move is a side effect that could be permanent.
I hope you’ll read much of Furious Season’s archives. My daughter is currently disabled, and in a hospital at age 21, she is an example of this diagnosis gone bad.
Good luck.
Thanks for posting this Stephany. I should have posted a post-script that we have talked to Doc since this happened and he did say to never use Seroquel again with Rye. So, this is an important piece that people should know – we won’t be using this med anymore. Also, we have lowered the Abilify as well to a very low dose.
Hi
I’m fourteen, and after a recent suicide attempt overdose on Wellbutrin, I had to stay at a psych ward for ten days. They gave me Abilify for a few days, which worked, minus stomachaches. The doctors thought it was vital I got off of Abilify because of these stomachaches, and put me on Seroquel. Which has, seemingly, worked. But it really wasn’t. It tore me apart completely, and in the past week I’ve been self-mutilated again and attempted overdose twice. I stopped taking it, and I’m happier than ever.
I don’t recommend seroquel to anyone.
Ick… Seroquel can *cause* feelings of depression and suicide upon initially starting it. Shila, you need to tell your physician immediately. There are other drugs that may work for you…
Meg, why did the physician tell you to stop Rye’s Seroquel? A side effect of Seroquel is drowsiness…
Josh, I was told the reaction Rye had was excessive somnolence (in our case it completely knocked him out flat right in the middle of the room and I had to check on him through the night to make sure he was still breathing). It has happened to other children and it was not something we wanted to try again or work through as it can be dangerous and it was scary.