Have Been Prescribed Seroquel

[TomCrick]

Hi Folks,

          As per the topic title, I finally got to see a psychiatrist on Monday and she prescribed me 50mg Seroquel along with my 20mg Citalopram. I didn't know what it was at first, so went home and Googled, only to find out it's an anti-psychotic, which concerns me greatly.

I spoke to a friend of mine who used to be a psychiatric nurse who said, 'broadly speaking, mental health can be split into psychotic - disorders of thought - and neurotic - disorders of mood. But sometimes treatment for psychotic illnesses can leak across into treating depression/anxiety as well.'

I can only draw the analogy that it's similar to ibuprofen treating lots of different kinds of pain, but I still feel disconcerted, ashamed and concerned that I've been given this drug.

The psychiatrist herself wasn't brilliant. I took along some notes I'd made as I stammer, just to give an outline, which she needed almost persuading to read. Then she nearly bit the secretary's head off when she was informed that she had an appointment at the police station. If it wasn't for the fact that the rest of the staff seemed to know who she was and addressed her as 'doctor,' I'd have assumed she took a wrong turn at Sainsburys. She then mentioned 'personality disorder,' to which I said, 'well, surely everyone's personality is to an extent disordered?' But then she started grumbling about her workload.

She also didn't think I was cyclothymic at all, because I couldn't describe any mania or hypomania to her. She said, 'you may just have unipolar depression.'

I've never been arrested, experience no hallucinations, don't do any of that stuff at all. I just sometimes get very, very bleak periods.

Could anyone offer me some reassurance, please?

Thank you!

TC

[Buttercup]

Hi Tom

Seriously (Quetiapine) is an anti psychotic but it is also used as a mood stabiliser for bipolar and also in unipolar depression, there are a few people on here that take it.

Bipolar spectrum disorders are difficult to diagnose, it often takes along time. I am bipolar and can quite honestly say that I haven't been arrested, I do suffer from paranoid delusions and can clearly describe manic periods.

Xxxx

[PMD1911]

Hi there.

As buttercup says as well as being an antipsychotic, it's is also a mood stabiliser. This is typically at low dose 50-200mg daily. Higher doses are used to treat psychotic illnesses.

[Got]

Quetiapine is an atypipal antispyschotic with mood stabalising and anti depressant properties - thus is is often useful for the treatment of mood disorders, and is frequently used as an add on to anti depressant therapy.

Cyclothymics do not have mania, so not having manias should not be an issue, you should be experiencing periods of hypomania and dysthymic depression for a diagnosis of cyclothymia to be made.

If you have a personality disorder than you will require psychotherapy, and this should be discussed properly with you. Your mental health needs discussing properly, do you have dysthymia or do you have major depressive episodes? Do you have a personality disorder? Etc etc.

From your account of the meeting your needs have not been fulfilled. Request to see another psychiatrist as the one you have seen sounds to be suffering from mental illness herself (stress).