Any dementia patients taking Seroquel?

My Husband was on it for about 3 years it was prescribed by Hospice. I no longer recall the dose. As to side effects as far as I could tell there were none.

My husband has been taking seroquel for years and is still on it. In fact, he has severe anger issues which have gotten worse since he’s been in the nursing home, and finally they even had to increase the dosage. He was getting 100 mg at night and now he’s getting another 100 mg in the morning. He got into a fight with his roommate, threatened and pushed the nurses, tried to break out of the locked unit, and it got to the point where they had to assign a one on one to be near him at all times because of his behavior. It seems to have helped.

Seroquel is the brand name of Quetiapine, an antipsychotic drug designed to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other types of psychosis. It's not indicated for dementia. However, it's used occasionally off-label to treat agitation, anxiety, insomnia and psychotic symptoms in demented people. Anti-psychotics in general have been found to be dangerous in old people. They increase the incidence of cerebro vascular accidents. They also make cognitive symptoms worse. Therefore, antipsychotics are used only as a last resource. Even in those instances, they are prescribed in very small dosages and only for a limited time. Quetiapine ha many undesirable side effects like over-sedation, hyperglycemia, involuntary movements, weight gain, hyperlipidemia and others. Doctors usually prescribe Seroquel to old people suffering from dementia, only when nothing else works. However, everybody should be aware of the risks for using antipsychotics in dementia.