Quetiapine abuse on the rise
13th March 2012
Ambulance call-outs for quetiapine overdoses have soared over the past decade, fuelling fears the atypical antipsychotic is cementing its place as a prescription drug of abuse.
Quetiapine (Seroquel)-related ambulance attendances across Melbourne leapt from 32 in 2000/01 to 598 in 2009/10, experts have reported, while call-outs for other atypical antipsychotics declined over this period.
Dr Belinda Lloyd, who reported the figures this month in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry