Tapering off 25 mg of quetiapine

I have been on 25mg of quetiapine for 5 months. I’d like to go off it. Can I just stop taking it or do I need to tapper? If so how do I do that since I’m on the lowest dose. Thank you

Hello all, this is my first post. I was on a low dose of Seroquel 25-75mg for 7 years. 8 months ago I was at a dose of 1+1/2 25 mg pills. I decided it just wasn't helping anymore and wanted to taper off. I started by continuing one 25 mg pill at night and taking the additional half every-other night. I did this for a week. Then I cut the half pill into a quarter. I did this for a few weeks to make sure I was ok. I didn't have any noticeable withdrawals. Then I cut back to just 25 mg at night for 2 or 3 weeks. Then started chipping away at the 25 mg pill a little more every few weeks as long as I felt ok. I got down to 1/4 of a 25 mg pill and rode that for about a month then cut it to every other night for a few weeks then quit. It's been 6 weeks now without Seroquel. I am a bit sensitive, I'm overstimulated easily but really not bad at all! I tapered very slowly. I do feel like I felt better when I quit the 1/4 pill. Going slow was so much better then in the past when I had to quit in a hurry due to the meds actually making me feel worse. They work great for a while but then they just don't work anymore. This was the longest I was on a med that worked for longer than a couple years. I do feel a little emotional or moody but the physical icky feeling isn't there. I am so grateful it wasn't a traumatic experience this time. I wish you all well!

@sheila17 Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect! Here is what drugs.com says about this drug you are taking: https://www.drugs.com/quetiapine.html You'll notice it mentions to not stop suddenly. I think that is true for so many of our mental health drugs. The side effects of doing just that can be terrible.

Have you checked with your doctor about stopping the medication? Will there be a replacement used after you stop?

I will tell you my story about stopping an anti-depressant. Like you, I was on a very low dose, and we decided for me to titrate off it. My prescription was one pill a day, at night. At first I did two nights full dose, then third night half a pill. That was for two weeks. Then two weeks of one night full dose, two nights half a pill. Then two weeks of half pill each night. From there, two nights half a pill, skip third night completely, for two weeks. Then two weeks of half pill every other night. And slowly went to every third day, then every fourth day, and so on. You can see it took a long time, not something to be rushed! What we didn't want was any toxic effects of coming off the medication.

Please check with your doctor and let me know what they say, okay?
Ginger

@sheila17 and @sarasmile welcome both of you to Mayo Clinic Connect. I applaud both of you for your desires to carefully wean off a med. As @gingerw put it, the best person to advise you on this is your medical provider. Probably the prescribing provider because that is the one that already has an established relationship with you (at least somewhat) and hopefully knows your history.

You need to arrange it with your doctor to taper off it slowly or you will end up in hospital 🏥. When ever I stopped qutiepine I ended up on the psych ward a month later. This was when I thought I was well and did not need the meds any longer wrong the drugs are helping you keep well let's get it right. All the best.

I started 25mg of qutiepine about a month ago for chronic insomnia. I have tried everything else and nothing works. I am taking half of the medication. I want to be off of it, but only sleep a little without it. Not sure what to do?

Try low dose melatonin. If marijuana is legal in your state, Indica gummies an hour before bed can be very helpful.

Using melotin now, gets me to fall asleep, but wakeup early and can not fall back to sleep. Marrijaua gave me a bad reaction to it.