Quetiapine and other anti-psychotics in the treatment of psychotic symptoms
 

In the treatment of psychotic symptoms how long did it take for quetiapine, or any other antipsychotic to start having an effect in reducing psychotic symptoms, did this happen gradually, when do you feel it reached its peak in usefullness?

Please comment as much as you like, and if you wouldnt mind saying, what dosage were you on at the time, in the case of quetiapine.

Thanks honeys

I wasn't on quetiapine, but I was put on a starting dose of 7.5mg of Olanzapine when I had my first pychotic episode and I started noticing a change in the severity of my symptoms after about a week and a half and my symtoms were reduced a lot by about two weeks

This was only temporary though and after a few more weeks my symptoms were bad again (Im on 17.5mg of Olanzapine now)

I took quetiapine. I started on 50mg a day, and was up to 600mg in 6 days. It had an almost immediate effect, but the side effects were untolerable. I went back down to 50mg a day, and that worked. I did have to increase in monthly or so, until I was at 200mg a day. I had to stop taking it when I found out I was pregnant. It was the only thing I've ever taken that had any effect, and I thought it was brilliant.

they said it'd be about two weeks for me, i'm on a starting dose of perphenazine

Im on Haliperidol. I started off on a higher dose but had to come down to a lower dose due to side effects. I noticed a change within a couple of days but it really depends upon what theraputic dose you need. Once its at the right level for you you should notice it getting better. But give it time as you may need your dose increasing a few times before you get it right.

Olanzapine. good. but then i don't really have psychosis. but yeah, helped fast. weight gain difficult though, especially when first started taking it. would be asleep, wake up, grab first food in sight, eat it without realising, then fall back asleep again. drowsiness difficult, but got easier to deal with after a couple of weeks. much easier to deal with than Risperidone and Quetiapine for me, but i am easily sedated.

something i've found helpful in the past is a [very] low dose i.e 1-3mg pd of Risperidone being taken for the prevention of complete psychosis and psychotic symptoms.
sorry i couldn't help about the quetiapine as i can't remember as it never helped when i took so i switched over to another medication.
when i first when psychotic, to the point of being admitted they put me on Olanzapine at a high dose but i cant remember what exact dose and it would depend on the person and severity of symptoms i think. Olanzapine has been the worst one i've taken for side effects but it tends to be a case of the symptoms being so bad that the side effects are good compared to how ill the person had to be to go on it.
i hope this all made sense.

im on 200mg of quetiapine and even tho its a low dose, i think it started working in about a week. xx