Sciencemadness Discussion Board
Not logged in [Login ]
Go To Bottom

Printable Version  
Author: Subject: What chemistry would you do with a 3 year's supply of bipolar meds?
betamethyl
Harmless
*




Posts: 2
Registered: 25-12-2018
Member Is Offline


smile.gif posted on 25-12-2018 at 02:53
What chemistry would you do with a 3 year's supply of bipolar meds?


As it happens, i have a stockpile of both lithium carbonate and seroquel XR tablets - 3 years’ worth, to be exact, following a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and an unwillingness to take the appropriate medications.

The details of that particular story are inconsequential, however it may ease you to note that this happened long in the past and my mental health has been stable for several years.

I expect these medicines, at least the lithium anyway, to be in fairly good condition, having been left in boxes for as long as 4-5 years and have only been exposed to the heat of several Australian summers.

There is a total of 863.375 grams of Lithium carbonate (the majority, 768.375 g, coming from "Quilonum SR" tablets and the remainder from "Lithicarb" tablets). As for the Seroquel XR tablets, there is a total of 532.4 grams of Quetiapine fumarate present. Due to various reasons, it has come time for me to finally perform some chemistry with these tablets or to dispose of them at the local chemist.

I was about to start an extraction on the lithium tablets when i wondered if there was a better or pre-existing method. Searching the internet failed to show any procedure online, and the scimad search function failed to give any indication that an extraction of lithium from bipolar medication had been documented before. What i found more curious is that both "quetiapine" and "seroquel" gave no results on the scimad search function, and i could find no evidence that people had played around with these tablets before.

The extraction procedures will be fairly rudimentary for the tablets, but it got me thinking - i will be left with over 500 grams of quetiapine fumarate and 750 grams of lithium carbonate. I already plan to make various salts with the lithium, but with the quetiapine I have no better ideas than attempting to isolate fumaric acid and piperazine via degradation - this is if I even decide to work with a purified, sedating antipsychotic compound due to the obvious hazards, especially to those around me.

So, what would you do with such a quantity of these compounds? I don’t want to waste the rare opportunity I have, so I’d like to know what, if any, obscure/rare/curious/useful compounds fellow ‘mad’ scientists may see in these tablets that I don’t.

Any input is gladly appreciated,
beta-methyl.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Dragonjack12
Harmless
*




Posts: 25
Registered: 24-5-2018
Location: Northern Minnesota
Member Is Offline

Mood: Chlorine trifloride

[*] posted on 25-12-2018 at 19:47


A weeks worth of chemistry



Jack place
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Phosphor-ing
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 244
Registered: 31-5-2006
Location: Deep South, USA
Member Is Offline

Mood: Inquisitive

[*] posted on 27-12-2018 at 03:48


The ScienceMadness search function is not very good. Do a Google search and add “site: sciencemadness.org” to the end of the query. That should give better results.



"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" -Ronald Reagan
View user's profile View All Posts By User
mayko
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1218
Registered: 17-1-2013
Location: Carrboro, NC
Member Is Offline

Mood: anomalous (Euclid class)

[*] posted on 27-12-2018 at 08:04



The lithium carbonate you can probably use for lithium chemistry, much like the pottery-grade stuff usually is.

There doesn't seem to be anything about seroquel already posted. I myself have a smaller amount of aripiprazole loitering in my cabinet that I haven't come up with a good use for.

Seroquel/Quetiapine:


Abilify/Aripiprazole:




al-khemie is not a terrorist organization
"Chemicals, chemicals... I need chemicals!" - George Hayduke
"Wubbalubba dub-dub!" - Rick Sanchez
View user's profile Visit user's homepage View All Posts By User
draculic acid69
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1371
Registered: 2-8-2018
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 28-12-2018 at 02:39


Not much you can do with seroquel other than swallow it.lithium carbonate can be used to make lithium salts of your choosing.thats it.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Heptylene
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 319
Registered: 22-10-2016
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 31-12-2018 at 16:00


You could convert it to a suitable salt and electrolyse it in the molten state to make lithium metal. Lithium is surely easier to isolate than sodium or potassium. There are probably eutectic mixtures with other salts that can help with melting it.

Or make lithium nitrate and use that in pyrotechnic compositions.

overview.JPG - 252kBview 2.JPG - 247kBview 3.JPG - 258kBhot2.JPG - 245kB
View user's profile View All Posts By User
lordcookies24
Hazard to Self
**




Posts: 78
Registered: 2-1-2019
Location: pluto
Member Is Offline

Mood: curious

[*] posted on 2-1-2019 at 18:37


you can make make lithium chloride by reacting it with hydrochloric acid which would make it burn at a nice deep red color. i just love making different (some-metal)-chloride to see what color it would burn.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Herr Haber
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1236
Registered: 29-1-2016
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 3-1-2019 at 06:02


Quote: Originally posted by betamethyl  
this is if I even decide to work with a purified, sedating antipsychotic compound due to the obvious hazards, especially to those around me.



I'm not sure you can be any danger to anyone but yourself if you are barely able to pick your nose.
Sorry for the joke, the people I've seen treated by antipsychotics only seemed to be dangerous to people with a short temper.

Lithium carbonate can be used as is for fireworks provided you find a suitable chlorine donor.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Dan Vizine
National Hazard
****




Posts: 628
Registered: 4-4-2014
Location: Tonawanda, New York
Member Is Offline

Mood: High Resistance

[*] posted on 6-1-2019 at 15:51


The ONLY suggested use for Seroquel is to use it to fill the bottom of the bowl before flushing.



[Edited on 1/6/2019 by Dan Vizine]





"All Your Children Are Poor Unfortunate Victims of Lies You Believe, a Plague Upon Your Ignorance that Keeps the Youth from the Truth They Deserve"...F. Zappa
View user's profile View All Posts By User

  Go To Top