seroquel and... swallowing?

[Rabbit37]

I took my night meds a little early last night, wanting them to kick in before I hit the bed. I take 400mg seroquel, and halfway through a late dinner, I could feel the effects. The weird thing is, I started having trouble swallowing. I almost gagged a few times, I just couldn't get the food down my throat (sorry if that's TMI). Has anyone experienced this??? Needless to say, I'll start taking them *after* my dinner, but I just wondered if it was a common side effect?

[TCB]

I took my night meds a little early last night, wanting them to kick in before I hit the bed. I take 400mg seroquel, and halfway through a late dinner, I could feel the effects. The weird thing is, I started having trouble swallowing. I almost gagged a few times, I just couldn't get the food down my throat (sorry if that's TMI). Has anyone experienced this??? Needless to say, I'll start taking them *after* my dinner, but I just wondered if it was a common side effect?

When I took Seroquel at night (I think it was 200mg) I had trouble swallowing food sometimes. The problem for me was after I took it within a hour or so I was hungry so I had to eat something. I just made sure I took my time and chewed real well.

[december_brigette]

hi,

yes, i had problems swallowing...but it was at night as i would go to bed. it was really bad for a while, then went away, and now is rare - msybe 1-2 times a month. all this happened on same dosage of seroquel.

there is a technical name for this problem....but i dont remember.

db

[Loon-A-TiK]

i never got as far as not being able to swallow when i first started seroquel. my hands shook so badly that i would drop a bowl in my hands, and even sometimes jerk so hard that the bowl would go flying.

so i don't put anything past the stuff.

[LunaRufina]

...Has anyone experienced this??? Needless to say, I'll start taking them *after* my dinner, but I just wondered if it was a common side effect?

I believe dysphagia is the word for it.

Neuroleptic Drug Therapy

Dysphagia can be a well-known side effect during antipsychotic or neuroleptic therapy. The dysphagia is mostly due to extrapyramidal motor disturbances which can lead to severe impaired function of the striated muscle of the oropharynx and the esophagus

Dysphagia as a Drug Side Effect

Dysphagia: Esophageal dysmotility and aspiration have been associated with antipsychotic drug use.

It's listed as infrequent in the PI Sheet but I guess it's well known as a possible side effect when taking antipsychotics. I'd tell your doctor if it starts happening more frequently.

[Guest Guest]

I am on Seroquel and have been for years - this happens sometimes in bed after my evening dose. I find that it comes and goes, and that the less you try to swallow, the better it is. i.e. panic about having trouble swallowing makes it worse.

[Silver]

Looks like there are case reports aplenty out there for most antipsychotics, new or old, and there's some thought that it may be a form of EPS. Here's a review article, if you have fulltext access; my library doesn't feel the journal Dysphagia is a major player around here, apparently. More case reports for more 'typical' atypicals (risperidone), but there was one for olanzapine, and you'll see the references for Clozaril attached to that one.

Reflux / GERD can also present as difficulty swallowing, so that might be something to consider.

Perhaps your pdoc and you can get a case report writeup out of this.

[CER]

Would you believe that when I saw the title of this thread I was thinking something else?

But after reading it over I would have pointed out the same side effect on the PI sheet that LunaRufina did. Talk to your doctor if you keep getting it.