Mental health medications: Seroquel

June 21, 10:08 PMSF Mental Health ExaminerPaul Bright

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Today’s featured medication: Seroquel

As mentioned in earlier articles about bipolar disorder, it is particularly important that patients stick to any prescribed medication plans. This is of main concern because without them, some symptoms like those associated with mania can cause irreparable harm to themselves and others. Seroquel is a medication often prescribed.

Psychosis

Seroquel helps treat a major symptom of bipolar disorder known as psychosis. Patients with psychosis can experience hallucinations or delusional thoughts. Sometimes those thoughts get jumped and patients can begin to have disorganized thoughts and speech. Although psychosis can occur in either the manic or depressive major mood, symptoms during manic episodes can be dangerous because of the high energy and impulsive nature of bipolar patients in that state. These symptoms lead to poor social interaction.

How Seroquel Works

Seroquel works by addressing dopamine and serotonin receptors in the brain. Those are neurotransmitters that help control a person’s mood and thoughts. Dopamine, in particular, is said to help people decide on the salience of an object or person. That is, the perception of whether or not the subject is a reward or threat. If there are problems with the D2 receptor, dopamine neurotransmitters can cause problems with judgment and lead to paranoia and lack of good judgment, as seen in stories told in this article. Serotonin neurotransmitters keep people in a generally positive mood by controlling anger and aggression. You could imagine what bad reception of serotonin could do in a manic patient who is already paranoid about the people or subjects around him, real or not. When Seroquel prevents the receptors of both dopamine and serotonin from delivering corrupt messages, the symptoms of psychosis are reduced.

Side Effects

The most notable side effect of Seroquel is that it causes extreme sleepiness, particularly during the beginning of treatment. Some Seroquel users report that 100 mg of Seroquel can put them to sleep within 30 minutes. A modified version of Seroquel has a time-release effect to reduce the immediate sleepiness. Sometimes doctors will recommend Seroquel for that reason, even though it is only FDA-approved for treating bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. A small number of patients experience rapid heart rate, weight gain, and dry mouth. One of the major side effect concerns is that if Seroquel is taken for too long, a neurological disease that causes rapid involuntary movements can develop. It is not curable. However, risk of developing this condition with Seroquel use is very low.