Quetiapine and auditory hallucinations
 

Hi guys, has anyone experienced auditory hallucinations from taking a low dose of quetiapine? When I first started taking it morning and night, it made me feel physically unwell and caused some hallucinations. I switch to taking both doses at night but due to feeling so anxious, I took one this morning.
A little while later, it was like someone was laughing manically but it was echoing through my head with the occasional ‘yell’ which made me leap out of my skin. I then fell asleep and had horrid and very vivid nightmares. I’m exhausted and have a severe headache now, I’m worried about taking it again but it’s meant to help me with sleep and anxiety and if I just stop taking it, I’m worried I won’t get sleep and it will make things worse.

My care coordinator is away training next week, I guess I could contact the duty team on Monday as it’s a bit late now being the end of the day on a Friday.

Yes, I have experienced this but can't remember if I stuck with the meds or was advised to come off them. I think with most meds the effects like that do wear off. Do you not usually take a dose in the morning any more? It's probably best to stick with whatever pattern of doses you have been advised to take/have been taking regularly. If you're still having issues then most definitely phone the duty team on Monday if you can.

I’ve been taking just 2 at night instead of 1 morning and night because I couldn’t handle the side effects during the day. If I had handled it, I would have gone up to 1 morning and 2 at night at my next med review (which isn’t for a while). But as my anxiety has been terrible and I didn’t think the side effects would be as bad now I’ve been on it a while, I thought I would try taking one this morning. I won’t try it again and will speak to duty team to see what they say, whether I can get some PRN or something that will help but without the hallucinations. Although usually I’m told I’m too high risk, so I either have to try and ride out the awful anxiety and thoughts or I resort to self destructive behaviours and it seems like an endless cycle at the moment. I’m trying to keep myself distracted and have some plans for the weekend.

With medication, are you on anything else? OR have they said about risk with that too? Just wondered if you could take them supervised in a pharmacy, if that would make you safer and satisfy your doctor? Don't know if it would work for you, and obviously not going to be suitable for PRN, but might be an option for something regular.


I've never taken quetiapine, so I've not had the same experience, but I have heard it happen to other people before. I hope it settles soon.