Seroquel and its generics aren’t approved as sleeping pills. Doctors say the drug is being prescribed in low dose formulations to people with no underlying psychiatric conditions, the majority for sleep. “It’s popping up as a patient’s typical medication for insomnia all the time,” says Kamloops emergency physician Dr. Ian Mitchell. “Seroquel is not benign,” Dr. David Gardner, a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Dalhousie University said in an email. Juurlink said quetiapine might shorten sleep latency — the time it takes to fully fall asleep — by a few minutes.

Source: National Post June 14, 2017 18:45 UTC