Comparing Seroquel vs Zyprexa

For Bipolar Disorder Took for bipolar. Good side effects: more or less consistently put me to sleep every night. Bad side effects: gained roughly 20 lbs 6 months in, had a difficult time getting up every day, needed more sleep than usual. It helped for awhile, but it mostly made my episodes less severe, did not effectively stop or prevent them.

For Bipolar Disorder My experience with this drug has been generally positive. It does tone down my hypomania, and is amazing at helping me sleep (it used to take me up to 3.5 hours lying in the dark to fall asleep...now it's closer to between 1-2 hours). However, it does give some weird side effects. It gives me intensely vivid dreams. I normally dream very little, but this gives me very strange dreams every night that I can very clearly remember on waking up. These dreams even frequently (3/4 times a week) cause me to wake up in the middle of the night! Would not recommend if you already have frequent nightmares or night terrors, as seroquel may make those much worse. Ineffective for depression.

For Bipolar Disorder First year on 5mg at night helped my mood, anger outbursts and anxiety a great deal. Did develop high cholesterol and gained 15 pounds, but the trade off was worth it. Also helps wonderfully with insomnia. After the year mark it was no longer handling my anger well. Started having 2-3 inappropriate outbursts a week. Pdoc started me on geodon but couldn't handle the side effects, so back to the zyprexa I went with another 2.5mg added in the morning and gained another 6 pounds. Have tried other AAPs but can't handle the side effects so I'm still on the zyprexa for now until I get brave enough to try something else again. Taking with Pristiq, Trileptal, Vistiril and Xanax.

For Bipolar Disorder This medicine works really well as a mood stabilizer for me. The only MAJOR drawback is weight gain. I just can't control myself when the carb cravings happen. I am usually very much in control of my dietary habits, but on Zyprexa that just isn't possible. I also suffer from schizoaffective disorder and hear voices. Although Zyprexa suppresses them, it does not completely get rid of them in my case; they are quiet enough to tolerate though. I have gained 35 pounds in less than about a month and a half. I am going to wean off of these and ask the psych-doc for something else.