Serotonin Syndrome

[cherryblossom]

Seroquel makes you gain weight.

Seroquel can cause weight gain. There's a big difference. In clinical trials, the largest percentage of patients that gained weight while on seroquel, were in the schizophrenic group and even then only 23% of patients gained weight.
Of those who were treated with seroquel for bipolar depression, only 8% gained weight.

Link Removed

Just saying that I don't think you should dismiss this drug out of hand, because you think it will make you gain weight, when in fact based on statistics, the majority of patients will not gain weight.

 

[Heather]

I spoke with my pharmacist and she said that the majority of people on seroquel gain weight. I don't want to chance it. Not worth the risk in my opinion. Some people may not care but that's one thing that I'm not willing to compromise on.

I got into a huge fight with the nurse practitioner about this very issue. She was so angry at me she basically kicked me out of her office because she wouldn't get off the seroquel "bandwagon". How many different ways can I tell someone NO?

 

[Elektra]

No thanks. Seroquel makes you gain weight. I'm not interested in taking any meds. that do that. But thank you for the suggestion.

I have been taking it for years and never gained any weight.

 

[Sham]

I gained far more weight on mirtazapine, trazadone, and other tricyclics than on seroquel. I actually gained maybe 20lbs in the 5 years I took seroquel plus lunesta and after stopping it due to it potentially contributing to a heart issue I took the tricyclics, trazadone, and benzos (mostly lorazepam). I gained 50lbs in 6months. We sorted out the contributing factors to the heart issue, I went through a whole bunch of other antipsychotics where I had to take the maximum does plus mirtazapine, trazadone, and lorazepam at the same time to get any sleep at all, and finally got back on seroquel. I'm taking double the dose I was before but I've stopped all the other meds except lunesta again and my weight gain has stopped.

All antidepressants and sleep aids can cause weight gain. Sometimes severe weight gain. That includes trazadone and the tricyclics. If weight gain is not an acceptable risk to you then you really shouldn't touch any of the antidepressants. Everyone is different so a different med will be the one that has that side effect for each person but it's a risk with all of them.

 

[Abbi]

Physicians also have to play the trial and error game on a patient by patient basis, as they have no way to determine what medication will work for you, if any at all.

Bravo!

It took me a long time to stop being so pissed at p-docs and realize that as a medication resistant person I was as frustrating to them probably as they were to me. It is as much art as medicine in some regards I believe.

One question I would ask is have you had the conversation you began on this forum with your provider? If not, why not? If you don't fully understand something do you ask them to explain it again, or in a different way? Be an active patient with your doctor, it helps tremendously I think. I know at many times I was my own worst enemy when it came to being passive regarding medications. I would go over and over in my mind all the questions I had for 2-3 weeks between med checks and work myself into a frenzy, when in reality a phone call or email could have put me "out of my misery".

A forum like this is wonderful when it comes to information and support...but when it comes to medication seems to me that conversation is best between doctor and patient and perhaps a Pharm-d. (and in US much difference between Pharm techs/Pharmacist/those that hold professional doctorates in pharmacology)