Seroquel is a black box medication that mental health providers often prescribe to patients with autism to manage their mood swings. In May of 2020, my youngest son was prescribed this medication. By June of 2020, I started to notice severe agitation in my son and expressed my concerns to his mental health provider who simply stated it was not the Seroquel and increased his dose from 150 mg to 200 mg per day. His agitation became worse and he started experiencing extreme fatigue, ringing in the ears, abdominal pain, severe drooling, nightmares, severe runny nose, increased heart rate, and sensory overload to both sound and light, but his mental health provider just said it would pass since he had not been on the new dose for very long.
Then less than a week later, the biggest scare of my life happened as a mother when I had difficulty waking my autistic son after he had laid down for a nap. When the ambulance arrived the EMTs were not able to wake my son, so he was transported to the Emergency Room at a nearby hospital.
After running several tests the ER doctor concluded that my autistic son had an adverse reaction to the black box drug known as Seroquel. The same medication his health provider assumed wasn't the problem.
Once the doctor was able to wake my son, we discovered he had some confusion and some memory loss as a result of the medication.
Because of the dangers, Seroquel presented to my son, his health provider chose to cut him off of the medication cold turkey. While this was what his health provider deemed as necessary, it caused several withdrawal symptoms that any parent needs to be aware of with the antipsychotic drug, Seroquel.
In the first few days of the withdrawals, he began to experience extreme sensitivity to light and blurry vision.
He started to show signs of uncontrollable twitching, repetitiveness in his speech, insomnia and began to experience severe migraine headaches daily.
After about three weeks the withdrawal symptoms began to ease, but we are still not in the clear because his mental health provider insisted on starting him out with a very high dosage, something I was unaware of at the time.
On a side note: When a child has severe or moderate autism it is often difficult to diagnose their symptoms of a side effect of a medication because they either cannot tell you or they don't recognize the exact symptoms they are having and may just guess or not even bring them up to you. Even when my autistic son began experiencing side effects from the drug, he never brought them up because to him they didn't seem severe enough.
What I have learned is that when you are working with a new medication, monitor your child closely. If they are non-verbal, but their moods or anything seems off, let their doctor know immediately. If he or she isn't willing to listen to your concerns, seek a second opinion.
The most common side effects of Seroquel:
Mood or Behavior Changes
Constipation
Abdominal Pain
Upset Stomach
Vomiting
Drowsiness
Dizziness
Light-headedness
Tiredness
Headache
Trouble Sleeping
Dry mouth
Sore throat
Weight Gain
Runny nose
Speech problems
Abnormal kidney tests
Severe Side effects include:
Allergies
Difficulty breathing
Twitching
Trouble with speech
Blurred vision
Confusion
Fast heart rate
Just a few of the withdrawal symptoms of the drug:
Sensitivity to light and sound
Severe migraines
Uncontrollable vomiting
Please use extreme caution when you or your child are introduced to a new prescription medication like Seroquel. Not every medication is a lifesaver.
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