Does Klonopin Interact With Seroquel?

Posted on Tue, 7 Mar 2017

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 7 Mar 2017 Answered on

Thu, 23 Mar 2017 Last reviewed on

Question : Hello, my name is XXXX XXXXXXX and I take 15 mg of abilify in the morning, and 1 mg of klonopin three times a day. I have trouble sleeping at night, so I'm thinking about asking my doctor to switch me from abilify to seroquel. But once I took 200 mg of seroquel at night, and 80 mg of latuda in the morning, and when I would take the seroquel I would feel extremely weak like I was going to pass out or die. I read that the combination of latuda and seroquel can cause an irregular heartbeat, so do you think that's why I was having this feeling whereas if I were just to take seroquel by itself, I would not have had that weak feeling like I was going to die? Because when I had taken seroquel in the past by itself, I did not get that feeling. Also, the combination of abilify and seroquel can also cause an irregular heartbeat, so how would I go about switching from abilify to seroquel? Abilify has a half life of 75 hours, so it would take over three days just for half of it to be out of my system, and that may still be too much to take the seroquel with because of the irregular heartbeat factor. Please tell me if you think that the latuda along with the seroquel is what caused the extreme weakness, and how I would go about switching from abilify to seroquel without getting side effects. How long would I have to wait until I can start the seroquel after stopping the abilify and what dosage of seroquel should I start at?

Is it safe to take seroquel with klonopin?

Answered by Dr. Ashok Kumar Choudhary (5 hours later)

Brief Answer:
You can cross taper

Detailed Answer:
Dear XXXX,
Thanks for using Healthcaremagic.

First of all I like to inform you that it is safe to take seroquel with klonopin as no significant interaction occurs with combination of these two medicines.

Secondly I feel that seroquel can be cross tapered with abilify when there are sleep issues. I understand that abilify have long half life but it is one of the safest medications when it comes to heart. It seems you are misinformed about the side effect of abilify. Grossly increase 50 mg of seroquel for 5 mg reduction of abilify every week. Have a target dose range of seroquel in the dose range of 200-300 mg per day. I mean to say that no interval required between seroquel start and stoppage of abilify.

Thirdly I am not convinced with combination of 80 mg looted and 200 mg of seroquel as it is completely irrational prescription and likely to harm you than providing any benefits. It is possible that combination of both caused extreme sedation and weakness as normal reaction due to improper use of medication.

I hope this helps you.
If you have more questions feel free to write back to me.
Thanks and regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Kampana