Help

[tyger5374]

I was diagnosed ten years ago with Bipolar and Borderline Personality Disorder. I have now been on Seroquel for ten years and frankly am tired of the way I feel. I have gained weight, I snore now, to where I cant even sleep in the same room with my boyfriend and I now have what feels like restless leg syndrome at night in my legs? What is the best way to slowly wean myself off of the stuff?  I have been taken off of it before and I didnt sleep for six months and my anxiety went through the roof. Can you help me?

[daledude]

I'm not familiar with Seroquel, but in regards to the restless leg syndrome, I take a full dose of Advil & Tylenol at the same time. I have serious problems with sleeping when I have the restless leg stuff going, and this combination does seem to help.

(A pharmacist friend suggested the Advil/Tylenol as a safe combination when you need that extra-strength solution.)

[LeftCoastChick]

What dose are you at? I had that for a bit,if it gets bad I take a small amount of ativan, seems to do the trick.

[elwoodsf]

Do you have anyway of contacting your doctor to ask him how to wean off of Seroquel? I was on it at one time but I don't remember how I came off of it. Sometimes my doctor can just switch me from one drug to the other without any weaning off involved. Regarding RLS, I read a post this week that suggested using a calcium/magnesium (sp?) supplement. This seems to be slowing my RLS down.

Keep us posted and take care of you.

[daledude]

I currently take stuff called "Natural Calm" calcium and magnesium supplement every day for other reasons, so it may be helping the RLS without my knowing it, but since I had RLS really badly the night before last, I don't know...

[charlydawn]

on the RLS you said a  advil and tylenol combination helps my husband has RLS really bad at times so how do you do the combination take 1 advil and 1 tylenol . any input would be great.

[daledude]

I take the full dose of both - 2 advil & 2 tylenol. My pharmacist friend told me that since they are different medications and don't adversely interact, you can safely take a full dose of both at the same time.

The night before last I rolled around for hours until I finally got up and took the meds. Last night I figured I was in for a bad night of it again, so I took the meds before I went to bed. This worked well for me and I made it through the night pretty well. Sometimes I'll take a 2nd dose during the night after the prescribed 4 hours has passed.

Hope this is helpful. I'd be interested in knowing if this does help your husband. I did some Internet research some time ago for RLS and came up with the info that pain relievers do help.

[bernie40]

Hi welcome to the site.

Have you spoken to your psychiatrist about coming off the seroquel?  After such a long time on it you really shouldn't even consider trying to come off it without advice and support from your psych.

Your psych will be able to discuss alternatives with you also.

[charlydawn]

thanks for the advice i will sure let you know if it works.

[tyger5374]

Thanks for the advice and I will try it tonight. Sounds weird but hey if it works. I have to give this a try. I see the psych on Feb 20th, had to switch to a new one so wont see one for a while. My old psych retired and it totally *****. The only two probs with being on Seroquel so long is that I am at a 700 dose at night and like i said i never snored until on it and its so bad cant sleep with boyfriend. I was yanked off once cold turkey for six months and I went thru serious withdrawls and couldnt sleep until i was put back on it.  I guess I need an anxiety med until weened off of it. Thanks for advice on RLS tho.

[daledude]

My pleasure and good luck!

[LeftCoastChick]

I dropped my nightly dose of Seroquel, it's more evenly spread out during the day.  You were at an extremely high dose of Seroquel, did you take seroquel in the day as well? Definitely try spreading out the dose. If you still having sleep issue, you might want to try Trazadone, it's not an addictive drug, and it makes you sleep like the dead. I also sleep with a wedge pillow for reflux, but I'm told it's good for snoring too!

Some folks just have RLS which hs nothing to do with the meds you are on. For years I would site at my desk and constantly being jiggling my leg up and down. I think that curtailed the RLS, and now that I'm not working it started up. I used to take tylenol with codeine, and there have been some articles that the two drugs can assist. There's also a couple of drugs on the market for RLS, but I was told it had nasty side effects. Ativan works very well easing up the zaps in my legs when it was bad.