Characteristics of Quetiapine Misuse Among Clients of a Community-Based Methadone Maintenance Program

Prevalence and associations of quetiapine fumarate misuse among an Australian national city sample of people who regularly inject drugs

“…While the reasons for this misuse cannot be inferred directly from this study, quetiapine has highly sedating properties, with 100% of participants in one study reporting sedation at some point [25]. Similarly, a single-centre Canadian study by McLarnon et al found that 89% of those who had used quetiapine without a prescription stated that this was for a sedative effect [18]. Further, the popularity of quetiapine in prisons has been suggested as a means to distance oneself from reality and 'sleep through' incarceration because it can make one feel 'dreamy' [26].…”

“…An understanding of whether misuse of quetiapine is an issue among PWID will help to inform licensing and prescribing patterns of the drug for higher-prevalence mental health disorders. This is particularly relevant given the suggestion that quetiapine may be prescribed to replace benzodiazepines in circumstances where there are concerns about comorbid substance dependence (where clinicians may assume that quetiapine is a less-abusable alternative) [7,18]. We also sought to examine whether there were any correlates in the health, drug use and social domains among PWID who misused quetiapine.…”

New psychoactive substances as part of polydrug abuse within opioid maintenance treatment revealed by comprehensive high-resolution mass spectrometric urine drug screening

“…To our knowledge, the present study is the first to report methylphenidate‐positive, quetiapine‐positive, gabapentin‐positive, and zolpidem‐positive urine samples in OMT. Certainly, there are previous reports on the use of methylphenidate (Pauly et al ., ), quetiapine (McLarnon et al ., ), gabapentin (Seale et al ., ), and zolpidem (Quaglio et al ., ) in OMT patients, but the results are not confirmed by laboratory analyses. We also found urine samples that were positive for bupropion, dextromethorphan, and tizanidine.…”

Is There a Potential of Misuse for Quetiapine?

“…Anecdotal reports indicate an increase in misusing levels in prison settings [13-14; 22; 35; 19], where recreational drugs are less readily available and quetiapine anxiolytic/sedative properties may be putatively helpful to cope with drug withdrawal [13]. McLarnon et al [36] examined quetiapine misuse among clients from a community-based methadone maintenance program, and found that 80% of participants reported a lifetime quetiapine use; of these, 21% reported taking quetiapine exclusively without a prescription. Malekshahi et al [37] screened some 429 addict inpatients and found that 73 (17%) reported levels of antipsychotic, and especially quetiapine (96% of cases), misuse which was carried out to enhance and/or counteract the remaining psychotropics' effects [17; 19; 21; 27; 38].…”