Quetiapine

Common Brand Names

Sykioquit, Qutipin, Quantia, Neutapin, Seroquel, Atrolak, Biquelle, Sondate, Zaluron

Overview

Quetiapine is a medicine that helps with mental health conditions such as:

• schizophrenia, where you may see, hear or feel things that are not there or you believe things that are not true, or you feel unusually suspicious or have muddled thoughts
• the mania symptoms of bipolar disorder, where your mood changes between feeling highly excited (mania) and very low (depression)
• depression in bipolar disorder
• depression (quetiapine is only used together with other medicines for depression)

It can help to prevent mania and depression if you have bipolar disorder.

It's an antipsychotic medicine that works by affecting chemicals in your brain such as dopamine and serotonin. It does not cure your condition, but it can help with the symptoms.

Quetiapine is only available on prescription in some countries.

Important Facts

• Quetiapine does not work straight away. You'll usually start on a low dose. It can take several days or weeks to get to the right dose for you, and for your symptoms to start improving.
• You can take quetiapine standard tablets and liquid with or without food. If you're taking the slow release tablets, take them on an empty stomach. This means an hour before food and 2 hours after food.
• Common side effects include feeling sleepy, problems with your movement and headaches.
• Quetiapine can make you feel more hungry than usual, so you may put on weight. Eating a healthy, balanced diet will help with this.
• It's best not to drink alcohol for the first few days of treatment until you see how the medicine affects you.

• Do not have grapefruit or grapefruit juice while taking this medicine, as it increases the risk of side effects.