Seroquel Seroguel, Sleep Apnea, Stop Breathing, Smart Move, Sensation
Posted over a year ago
Hi all, I'm hoping someone here with Seroquel-experience can help us with some information. My wife has been on Seroquel for approximately 5 weeks (ramping up to 200mg per day during the first 10 days, approximately). After 4 weeks, the severe breathing ... more »
Hi all, I'm hoping someone here with Seroquel-experience can help us with some information. My wife has been on Seroquel for approximately 5 weeks (ramping up to 200mg per day during the first 10 days, approximately). After 4 weeks, the severe breathing problems started. Physicians have verified the oxygen level in her blood to be excellent, her lungs and heart are in perfect shape, she has no fever and no indication of bacteria-infections. All indications are that this is caused by the Seroquel. She explains the intense sensation as drowning, almost passing out while gasping for air. She's feeling very dizzy, probably due to breathing too much as a result. Occasionally her breathing is not so deep, but more like hyper-ventilation. The problem became unbearable (and my wife endures a lot) after approximately 1 week, so 5 weeks into the Seroquel scheme she quit cold-turkey two days ago. The breathing problems are still the same. We are hoping someone could tell us how much time these breathing problems can be expected to remain, as I've googled my eyes out without finding any information on this. A week? - Two weeks? -Even more? - please respond, and in advance, thank you for your help!
Coryannabelle - seroquel has ruined my life.200mg for 2 years for insomnia.Have your wife taper off of it slowly to see if the reaction stops.
Deff5 - i came across this post in hopes of some answers as well. i am on seroquel and can tell you i have had no luck with it from the start. it has only made me worse instead of better. your wife should not be experiencing such horrible breathing problems.i had the same,as well as every other side effect that came along with the drug. the reason being,the dosage was dangerously high. it may be the same for your wife. my doctor doesn't know i have been cutting down my dosage slowly from 300mg to 15mg over the last 2 months. i am not stopping cold turkey, but i no longer experience the side effects i had. i want to come off it completely, but i havn't been doing well with my dosage being this low either.i am going to a different doctor to help me wean off of it completely....your wife should not have any of these problems.she should get a second opinion
if her doctor does not listen to her about what has been happening now. she really should be careful about just stopping it suddenly. she may experience side effects from doing that.please tell her she is not alone with this.i am trying to find a better alternative as well...i wish her the best of luck
Tukker - i have the same breathing at when I'm sleeping my husband insists it's sleep apnea, i insist since I've had the operation to get rid of the problem it worked,now with the seroguel I'm doing the stop breathing and the drowning sensation wwhen I told him he insisted on uping my dose to 400mg not a smart move on his part.
Apostolictucker - my first response to anyone who i taking any medication that gives them strange side effects or simply is not fixing the mental health issue, is GET OFF OF IT! of course I mean with the help of your doctor. But don't take any medication that is just making you feel worse. I have finally figured this out after many trail runs of many different medications. I have also found that there are too many medications out there to put up with these kind of side effects. I have a stepmom who tries different things for her anxiety, and nothing has worked for her so far. She just has to know that there IS something and she has to keep trying. Seroquel has worked miracles for me. I do feel tired and I do feel emotionless, but that beats the nightmares, anxiety attacks, heart palpitations, daily crying, loss of motivation and severe depression anyday. I have realized that you just have to pick and choose your battles. Losing my creativity is the hardest for me as I like to write, paint and do photography but at least this way, I can live and do right by my family.
Christinecooper_1972 - seraquel is a very bad drug for side effects and also to get of them is even harder i was on them for four years and i was on 300mg twice a day and i felt like my lungs could not get enough oxygen so i went to my doctor and he sent me in to get my breath tested with the air hose and a ball. they found that i could no longer stay on it. my air way was getting infected by the drug and now i still have breathing problems. did you know you can see a different doc and also get a lawyer cause there is a big class action suit on this drug because of all the problems people are having
Philgee - Hi there, I read your post and I was wondering if you could help me. I'm also experiencing sleep problems whilst coming off SEROQUEL XR?
The symptoms are bloody scary.
I wake up every 2 hrs through the night with what feels like a GASPING FOR AIR - (A SENSATION OF DROWNING), with a strange feeling in my throat. I'm not sure how to describe it further, - either a breathlessness or shortness of breath (almost like the wind has been knocked out of me).
I was on Seroquel XR 'to help with my anxiety/phobia problems' as my previous psychiatrist put it - (14 months / 400mg per night). Apart from knocking me out at night, the XR has not helped with the 'generalised anxiety disorder'.
My NEW psychiatrist has put me on NARDIL to replace the ineffective ZOLOFT/SEROQUEL COMBO (for me anyway), and I noticed a wonderful improvement after 2 weeks.
I was then recommended to slowly wean off the SERQUEL XR. I cut back from 400 to 200mg and after 5 nights the sleep problems peaked.
Can you please help me with this? I feel great on the NARDIL and in the meantime I will go back to taking the 400mg of XR at night.
Honestly, looking back over the 14 months the side effects of SEROQUEL have been minimal and I'm not sure what the med was even doing for me. (of course other than the drowsiness and really coma like deep sleep).
Thanks for any thoughts you can share on this.
Best wishes;
Phil
Philgee - Well well.
2 nights back up to 400mg of seroquel XR, and sleep issues completely disappeared.
I'm seeing my psychiatrist this Saturday and I'll be letting him know about this incident.
I think I will have to taper off very very very slowly.
Still, a very scary withdrawal symptom none the less.
Navywife1272 - I am having a lot of breathing problems, I got off of the Seroquel Aug26/2010 but the breathing problems remain. I was only taking 25 mg but for about 3 years. I am at my wits end. My MD has given me an inhaler and had me on antibiotics for awhile none of which has done a darn thing to really help me. I do feel that the Seroquel is implicated in this coughing and breathing problem. Never feel like I can take a full breath. I hope my health is not ruined forever.
Jhug1978 - I have been taking Seroquel XR for a year and a half and for the first year I battled exactly what your wife is experiencing. These are Extreme panic attacks caused by Seroquel but more so the fact that Seroquel causes extreme heart palpitations. I was originaly taking Effexor XR 225 mg for about 5 years. I lost my insurance and had to stop taking it. After about a year or so without I began experiencing extreme anxiety. Once I regained insurance my Dr. wanted to try something different so she put me on Seroquel XR. Starting with 50 MG then moving up to 150. after about 2 weeks I noticed an extremely fast heart beat around 120-150 bpm this caught my attention but I am in good health so I thought it may be a temporary thing. After about a month or so I began to have these extreme attcks where my heart would race so fast I could not breath. They would only last a few seconds and once you get to the point that you think your going to pass out all of the sudden it stops. I began having these once every few weeks and then it turned into 3 or 4 a day. I feel extreme sympathy for you and your wife because this is probably the scarriest feeling anyone can experience. I told my Dr. about this and even had one in front of her and she misstook it (so did I) as a panic attack and thought I should increase the dosage. I'm not a Dr. so i'm inclined to agree with her.
I was placed on 150mg XR and as soon as I took the first pill I had another attack. These continued to happen daily, on my next visit we decided to start putting me back on the Effexor XR. Once I began taking this the attacks did a complete 180 so I began lowering the dosage every month. I am now off of the drug and I notice SEVERAL differences. I can breath 100% better my eye sight is not blurry, I can think SO much clearly now. I felt as if I was in a drug fog for the last year so I finally feal like myself again.
One thing I did notice that may help others is that the lack of breath was trapped air in the stomach. I also noticed alot of fluid being released from my stomach. I will agree this will not happen to everybody but if start taking Seroquel and you experience a rapid heart beat and moments of hyperventalation. STOP taking it NOW! I cannot begin to describe the personal hell this has been not only for me but also the countless nights my wife has worried herself to sleep.
Checkurshrink - Luckily I was started on25 mg of seroquel to buffer my manic over reactions to situations. It helped dramatically but I gained weight.i reduced seraquel to 1/2 pill I've lost weight and sleep soundly. I am on 150 mg of lamictal and 175 mg of Effexor XR. The trio reduced anxiety, panic attacks and huge out bursts of manic aggression . No responsible Dr. Should prescribe big doses of seroquel in the beginning. And it should not be used as a sleep medicine. It is an ANTI-PSYCHOTIC for God's sake. I have rapid-cycling bipolar disorder. Drugs need to be prescribed in small doses at first then increased bit by bit until a therapeutic level is reached.
DO NOT ALLOW SHRINKS TO OVER DOSE U AND AVOID SIDE EFFECTS.
Craig1311 - Question about Serequel: I have been on 50 mg for 2 years. i have tried to come off a couple of times. each time my head gets somuch anxiety that it causes my ears to ring reaaly really loud. does anybody else have this issue. Please help!!!!!!!
12 Replies