bethannz: daughter stopping Seroquel after mild nms - restart?

[bethannz]

My daughter (20) has been on Seroquel since age 15. She suffered delirium after contracting a tropical mosquito borne infection. She was diagnosed with first episode psychosis and was told she needed long term high dose antipsychotics. But she was out of delirium after a few days before her dosage was titrated to therapeutic doses. So I didn’t allow them to increase her dosage. She has been on 75-50 mg ever since. She has tried to taper off several times. Recently she suffered mild nms and stopped seroquel. She recovered, immediately went back on them and had another episode of nms. I took her to a different hospital. There the psychiatrists told us that she shouldn’t be on antipsychotics because she doesn’t have a diagnosis that would justify them. We were very happy to hear that. They prescribed trazadone for insomnia and 10 days worth of lorazepam. But now I’m terrified that stopping cold turkey was a terrible mistake. She had insomnia, anxiety and depression which she never had before starting seroquel. Should she restart and try a slower taper? Is there something we can do to ease the withdrawal symptoms? Lorazepam seems to calm her anxiety but it leaves her feeling weepy and depressed. Trazadone helps her sleep though. Any suggestions?

[Shep]

Hi, Bethannz.

 

Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants. 

 

It's great you're being an advocate for your daughter. She's lucky to have you.

 

When did she taper off Seroquel? Is she still taking lorazepam or are the 10 days up?

 

When did she start taking Trazodone?

 

Please see the first post in this thread regarding a difficult side effect of Trazadone:

 

Tips for tapering off trazodone (Desyrel)

 

As noted in that first post, there's an active metabolite, mCPP: For some people, mCPP produces not only anxiety but headaches and a hallucinatory effect. So while trazodone may help you sleep at night, mCPP might make you feel sick, anxious, and out of control during the day.
 

Some of her daytime symptoms may be from the Trazodone, not just the side effects of the lorazepam. 

 

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Once we know her complete drug history, we can help her stabilize before doing a taper. I don't know if reinstating Seroquel is a good idea. It depends on how long she's been off it and the risk of NMS (neuroleptic malignant syndrome). What dose of Seroquel was she on when she suffered NMS? 

 

Is she able to make an account and work with us directly? We'll likely need to ask her questions about her drugs and her symptoms and it's much easier communicating directly with the person doing the taper.