Have Bipolar Disorder Controlled By Luthium. Given Seroquel For Insomnia And Mania. What Are The Side Effects?

Posted on Sat, 16 Nov 2013

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

Sat, 16 Nov 2013 Answered on

Mon, 9 Dec 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : i have bipolar disorder contolled by lithilm 900 mg a day and 1 mg zanex at night for sleep. I've gone through some emotional trauma which caused insomnia amd I went into a manic state. He gave me 25 mg of seroquel to aid the insomnia and mania. its working great for the daytime but at night now I'm restless and even adding atarax to sleep isn't working. It sonly the second day. will this work itself out? and what about the weight gain issue? I just lost 5 pounds cutting out sugar I don't want to start gaining again. thanx for your input.

Answered by Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi (22 minutes later)

Brief Answer: Hello, Welcome to Health Care Magic Detailed Answer: I have read the question and I can understand your problem. Luthium is a good drug for bipolar disorder and with good results. The drug is not associated with weight gain. Seroquel is good drug for bipolar disorder and it cause weight gain at high doses. You are taking 25 mg per day and this is not a high dose. As per my opinion there is need to increase the dose to 50-100 mg per day in night time so that it helps in sleep. But you don't want to gain weight. You can consult with your psychiatrist for some other drug like Aripiprazole which is also a atypical antipsychotic drug with good efficacy in bipolar also. The drug is also free of side effects of weight gain. Other option is to wait for some days to see effect of 25 mg Seroquel. With in 10-14 days you will see improvement. Thanks, if you have more questions you can ask again.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar