I'm losing weight on Seroquel (quetiapine), and sleeping too much

[theprinciple]

Hi, I've recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder (don't know which type yet), and the psychiatrist prescribed me some Seroquel XR.

 

She told me to slowly increase the dose:

Week 1: 50 mg DIE HS x 7 days

Week 2: 100 mg DIE HS x 7 days

Week 3: 150 mg DIE HS x 7 days

Week 4 and until they find an appropriate dose: 200 mg DIE HS

 

*DIE = once daily

**HS = at bedtime

 

I just started 150 mg last night, and I suddenly lost about 3 lbs., and I woke up this morning experiencing a down phase.

 

I was 161 lbs. before starting Seroquel, and now I'm at 156-157 lbs. My cheeks have also hollowed. Kind of like this:

It makes me look sick under certain lighting, and I feel like I lost a lot of muscle mass (looking in the mirror). The psychiatrist told me it might make me gain weight, but I'm experiencing the opposite (cut appetite too; usually I have a huge appetite after working out, but now I always feel disgusted by food), and even after 2 weeks of this, I'm still sleeping 12 hours a night.

So, my question is, have any of you experienced weight loss on this? Also, how are you managing with the drowsiness (excessive sleeping)? What would increasing the dose do to my body?

[surreal]

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Edited May 21, 2013 by surreal

[crazymomof5]

I was on Seroquel for a few years.  When I first started was in the hospital and the pdoc gave me 200mg and I was totally knocked out for about 16 hours.  I went down to 100 and then eventually kept increasing to a final high of 600mg. Each increase the drowsiness increased, but then leveled out.   It worked really well except for the drowsiness.  I started backing down (with a pdoc)  Eventually, I couldn't deal with the drowsiness and needed to function in the mornings so I went off it.  I was at 400mg and the pdoc took me off it right away and put me on something else (can't remember).  I had horrible withdrawal symtoms.

 

My weight didn't go either up or down so I can't speak to that.

[Luna-]

Wow. You're losing weight on Seroquel. I would give my eyeteeth for that to have happened.

 

Sorry, I'm not saying you should be happy, when it's concerning you. Just that I am amazed.

[Energizerhoney]

I've lost weight on Seroquel also. I think the 3# is water weight because of its histamine action (dehydration). Drink more water. What your seeing as lost muscle mass is probably dehydration also since muscles carry a great deal of water.

The drowsiness does get a bit better but I still need to sleep about 10hrs a night on it. I just have to live with that though. Better than not sleeping at all which was what was happening before.