'It’s not well supported by any science for use in sleep, it has significant side effects and yet it’s massively prescribed'Recently, after morning rounds seeing patients admitted to his hospital through emergency, Dr. David Juurlink tweeted: “Can the next doctor wanting to prescribe Seroquel for sleep,” he said, “just not?”Of the roughly 20 patients he saw that morning, four had been prescribed Seroquel, an antipsychotic, for insomnia.Seroquel and its generics aren’t approved as sleeping pills. He says many are at the time of life where they are prone to diabetes and cardio-metabolic problems and are taking a medication that raises the risk of that happening.Follow the topics, people and companies that matter to you.The pandemic is exacerbating - and accelerating - the gap between America's haves and have-nots.Virus spreading exponentially in UK.

My psychiatrist put me on Seroquel approximately 4-5 years ago, on a low dose of 100mg, as a sleep aid. Risks of sleeping with Seroquel and other psychiatric drugs. How to use Seroquel. A recent Health Canada review linked quetiapine and other so-called “atypical” antipsychotics to an increased risk of sleep apnea —breaks in breathing during sleep.Juurlink, a clinical toxicologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, said quetiapine could also cause a particularly nasty complication known as neuroleptic malignant syndrome, a rare but potentially life-threatening reaction to antipsychotics or major tranquilizers. "This can mess with their minds and their decision making. “It’s getting to the point now where, when I admit a patient with Parkinson’s, I reflexively look at their other medications to see, ‘are they on quetiapine?’”According to drug market research firm IMS Brogan, of the 33 million prescriptions for tranquilizers dispensed by Canadian retail drugstores in 2016, one quarter — 8.3 million — were for quetiapine.Doctors say the drug is being prescribed in low dose formulations to people with no underlying psychiatric conditions, the majority for sleep. At a GP education seminar on insomnia, held at the Woolcock last year, anti-psychotics were a major topic of discussion among the 80 doctors present. When taking one pill becomes ineffective many people – believing their dose to be very small – will take two, and so on. Recently I saw a He also sees youngish bankers and traders who are burning the candle at both ends, working hard, playing hard, using recreational substances and then knocking themselves out with major tranquillisers, which is what anti-psychotic drugs used to be called. Grinstein explained how little was known and how proper trials were required before an anti-psychotic could be repurposed as a hypnotic (sleeping pill). "I've seen people starting at 25mg and going up. Before you truly take on the military method or 4-7-8 breathing, see what you can optimize to … I got put on it for insomnia, crazy right? REM (rapid eye movement) sleep abnormalities, which may make dreams very vivid or bizarre. Like over-the-counter sleep aids, it makes people drowsy. “Over the last decade, I have seen several patients who have had quetiapine as part of, or one of the contributing causes to NMS,” said Juurlink, whose frustrated tweet to doctors last week was a repeat of one he has sent before.Feeling the need to repeat this after rounds this morning ... “I’ve certainly seen people who have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease that I’m confident were from quetiapine,” he added. I am surprised that you have much of any response at all. I took 50mg the first night and it knocked me out and I slept like a rock for 10 hours. The FDA has warned that treatment with antipsychotic drugs increases the risk of death among elderly patients with dementia, and now a new study confirms that some drugs are riskier than others. They won't be able to bring their full cognitive capacity on-line to make the best decisions. Why are antipsychotics used for insomnia? I can’t comment on anyone else but I took seroquel (aka quetiapine) for a year. It can also make people less aware of their “nocturnal awakenings” than they might otherwise have been.

Nicholas Glozier, consultant psychiatrist and Professor of Psychological Medicine at Neurosleep, and the Brain and Mind Research Institute, Sydney Medical School, says Seroquel is now the 'go to' The drug is known to have negative effects on metabolism, which is a concern for people, without mental illness, taking it. Which makes it difficult to taper without any negative side effects. “Seroquel helps me for sleep when nothing else will,” according to one online reviewer. Please try againPostmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. This would be 1/4 of a 25mg pill; very difficult to cut up. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. On the other hand, sleep hygiene, or clean sleep, is real and effective. "In specialist hands, Seroquel is a good drug and is relatively safe in many circumstances," says Chris Blackwell, a private consultant psychiatrist at the Woolcock, with a special interest in sleep.As Seroquel can, in rare cases, cause serious heart rhythm disturbances that can lead to a cardiac arrest, he sends patients for an electrocardiogram before prescribing it.He has an explanation of how anti-psychotics leaked into general practice.