Coming off Quitiapine
 

I saw the psych today and he said I can come off the quitiapine if I want to ( :) YAY!)

Anyway, my concentration span is short. I think he said:

*Come down 100mg a week
*or take 200mg every other day.

Does anyone here have any experience of coming off it? I'm tempted to just stop... but not sure if it would cause any withdrawal affects?

Thanks for reading :)

i advise you against just stopping

apart from it against what most doctors would say to do it is awful in terms of withdrawal. i decided i would just stop and i was ok for a while and then i felt as if i was at deaths door, with vomiting, fainting, dizziness, headaches. it was awful. for the sake of another few weeks you should definatly decrease slowly as your doctor had recommended.

Sudden Quetiapine withdrawal is horrible, I had hot and cold sweats, confusion, nausea, pins and needles, and a full psychotic relapse that landed me back in hospital. So do be careful and follow your doctors instructions!

When coming off quetiapine the usual practise is to drop down 100mg every week/2 weeks.

I agree with the above. A slow tapering off is best. Although I haven't tried quetiapine, when I went cold turkey off clozapine I was so ill I could barely get out of bed for two weeks. So 100mg decrease every ten days or so is best.

Thanks everyone, I will do it the proper way. I'm just desperate to get off it as its making me gain weight :sad:

I am not taking my quetiapine at the moment, and funny enough I have not had any withdrawal effects even though it was sudden. It's not the first time I did it (again stopped suddenly last year) though I did end up back in hospital.

But yes, I do recommend that if you are going to go off quetiapine in case you are not like me and do get effects.

I just came off Quetiapine and I did it very slowly like 100mgs every two weeks or so.

I still got terrible withdrawls like dizziness, absolutely no sleep, etc but the worst one was the itching. I was itchy everywhere for like two weeks and nothing would help it.
I too came off it because of the weight gain aspect, but i think now I am goin to have to chose between being relatively sane and fat, or skinny and insane.

I have just replied to another of your threads re this.

You do seem to have a lot of threads on this board - and I am beginning to think that some of them could be merged into one. Would certainly be less confusing for people looking to offer you support. I know I for one am all for offering support and answering questions - I do not have the energy to hunt through all of your threads though.

It would also mean other peoples threads do not get knocked of the front page.

Thanks.

Roiben x

Not much i can add, ive rfecently come off quatipine and its been rather difficult. keep a close eye on yhow your feeling and let the doctor know if things suddenly chnage or slip. Honestly please do.... i didnt tell anyone cause i didnt want them to say i needed to go back on it but im pretty mesued up now.

when coming off it i was just starting abilify, which is stimulating/take it in morning, so tbh i didnt have any side effects.

but can definitely say, when youre off quetiapine, youll notice it.. i did.. felt like waking up for the first time.

When I came off I just stopped but I had horrible withdrawal effects. I wouldn't recommend doing that.

If I were to do it again I'd probably gradually reduce by 100mg like you're doctor said, or whatever my doctor would recommend, despite the fact she doesn't seem to know what shes doing.

You may still experience side effects but hopefully they'd be much less bothersome than if you came off cold turkey.

I got awful withdrawal symptoms when I skipped doses of it in the past when I was on a fairly high dose, I would suggest (like everyone above), tapering it off slowly.

Like everyone has already said, i would really recommend NOT stopping straight away. as this is what i did and i got the worst side effects ever! E.g. feeling so faint you cant hardly walk, Sickness, And for me the reason on which i was on it got worse then before i started taking the meds. So yeah. I would reccomend coming off it slowly.

i know someone who is stopping quetiapine and has been told to reduce by 25mg a month.

i know when i don't take my quetiapine one night i feel like death warmed up