Latuda (lurasidone) vs Seroquel (quetiapine)
Latuda and Seroquel, compared on what the public record actually supports: side effects by rate from each FDA label, what the largest trial comparison found, who takes each one, who pays, what the labels warn, and what the litigation record holds. Sources on every number.
the short answer
- is Latuda or Seroquel more effective? depression score (MADRS) change against placebo: lurasidone −4.71 points (95% CrI −6.98 to −2.41), quetiapine −4.80 (−5.93 to −3.72). the direct estimate between the two was 0.10 (−2.44 to 2.61): no difference. that analysis was funded by Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, the maker of lurasidone (Latuda); three of the authors were Sunovion employees.
- which has fewer side effects? the labels say their trials “cannot be directly compared”, because each drug was tested in different people under different rules. what each label prints: Latuda (lurasidone): 9.5% (143/1508) stopped for an adverse reaction vs 9.3% (66/708) on placebo (Latuda label, SPL version 37, effective 2025-01-31). Seroquel (quetiapine): 4% stopped for an adverse reaction vs 3% on placebo (Seroquel label, SPL version 53, effective 2026-04-10). the reactions both labels list, side by side, are in the table below.
- which should i take? not a question this page answers. the odds ratios are averages across thousands of strangers; your history, other medications and what you can live with are not in them. the questions for your prescriber below are built from what is on this page.
What this page will not do is rank them. For most same-class pairs, head-to-head efficacy differences are smaller than the rankings look — the largest network meta-analysis ever run (21 antidepressants, 522 trials) found every drug beat placebo and the gaps between drugs mostly modest and uncertain. Which one fits you turns on your history, your other medications, and side-effect trade-offs — a prescriber conversation. This page arms that conversation; here are the questions worth taking into it →
the one network meta-analysis that puts these two side by side, in bipolar depression
who paid: funded by Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, the maker of lurasidone (Latuda); three of the authors were Sunovion employees. the paper says so on its first page, and so do we, because it is the first thing to weigh.
- depression score (MADRS) change against placebo: lurasidone −4.71 points (95% CrI −6.98 to −2.41), quetiapine −4.80 (−5.93 to −3.72). the direct estimate between the two was 0.10 (−2.44 to 2.61): no difference.
- response against placebo: lurasidone odds ratio 2.58 (1.67 to 3.81), quetiapine 2.09 (1.74 to 2.49); lurasidone against quetiapine 1.25 (0.78 to 1.90), which the authors call similar.
- weight against placebo: lurasidone +0.34 kg (−0.22 to 0.89), quetiapine +1.17 kg (0.84 to 1.49); quetiapine gained 0.83 kg more than lurasidone (−1.48 to −0.18).
- somnolence against placebo: quetiapine odds ratio 4.90 (3.59 to 6.56), lurasidone 1.53 (0.57 to 3.66); lurasidone against quetiapine 0.32 (0.11 to 0.80).
- stopping because of side effects, against placebo: quetiapine 2.46 (1.57 to 3.75), lurasidone 1.12 (0.36 to 2.76).
- in the other direction: lurasidone raised prolactin more than placebo, aripiprazole and quetiapine, and quetiapine was the one with lower odds of switching into mania than placebo (0.61, 0.35 to 0.99). extrapyramidal symptoms and akathisia were higher than placebo for both.
limits: 18 trials, acute bipolar depression only, a Bayesian network rather than many direct trials, a protocol that was not registered, and an industry funder with a product in the comparison. the numbers are what the record holds; they are not a verdict about you.
Kadakia A, Dembek C, Heller V, et al. Efficacy and tolerability of atypical antipsychotics for acute bipolar depression: a network meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry 2021; doi: 10.1186/s12888-021-03220-3. read 2026-10-11.
side effects by rate: what each label prints, not a head-to-head trial
the labels' own warning, first: “Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in clinical practice.” the two columns below come from different trials, in different people, under different inclusion rules. read each against its own placebo column, not against the other drug.
| reaction | 20 mg/day (N=71) / 40 mg/day (N=487) / 80 mg/day (N=538) / 120 mg/day (N=291) / 160 mg/day (N=121) / All LATUDA (N=1508) vs Placebo (N=708) | SEROQUEL (n=719) vs PLACEBO (n=404) |
|---|---|---|
| somnolence | 15% / 16% / 15% / 26% / 8% / 17% vs 7% | 18% vs 8% |
| dizziness | 6% / 4% / 4% / 5% / 6% / 4% vs 2% | 11% vs 5% |
| anxiety | 3% / 6% / 4% / 7% / 3% / 5% vs 4% | 4% vs 3% |
| agitation | 10% / 7% / 3% / 6% / 5% / 5% vs 4% | 20% vs 17% |
| vomiting | 7% / 6% / 9% / 9% / 7% / 8% vs 6% | 6% vs 5% |
| dyspepsia | 11% / 6% / 5% / 8% / 6% / 6% vs 5% | 5% vs 1% |
- Latuda (lurasidone): 9.5% (143/1508) stopped for an adverse reaction vs 9.3% (66/708) on placebo (Latuda label, SPL version 37, effective 2025-01-31).
- Seroquel (quetiapine): 4% stopped for an adverse reaction vs 3% on placebo (Seroquel label, SPL version 53, effective 2026-04-10).
what makes each table, in the labels' words
- Latuda (lurasidone), SPL version 37, effective 2025-01-31, 6 ADVERSE REACTIONS / 6.1 Clinical Trials Experience, tablets, for oral use. inclusion rule: “Adverse reactions associated with the use of LATUDA (incidence of 2% or greater, rounded to the nearest percent and LATUDA incidence greater than placebo) that occurred during acute therapy (up to 6 weeks in patients with schizophrenia) are shown in Table 19.” trials: “The following findings are based on the short-term, placebo-controlled premarketing adult studies for schizophrenia in which LATUDA was administered at daily doses ranging from 20 to 160 mg (n=1508). Broader database: the information is derived from an integrated clinical study database for LATUDA consisting of 3799 adult patients exposed to one or more doses of LATUDA for the treatment of schizophrenia, and bipolar depression in placebo-controlled studies, corresponding with a total experience of 1250.9 patient-years.” DailyMed
- Seroquel (quetiapine), SPL version 53, effective 2026-04-10, 6 ADVERSE REACTIONS / 6.1 Clinical Study Experience, immediate-release tablets (SEROQUEL); SEROQUEL XR extended-release is a separate label, not used here. inclusion rule: “Table 9 enumerates the incidence, rounded to the nearest percent, of adverse reactions that occurred during acute therapy of schizophrenia (up to 6 weeks) and bipolar mania (up to 12 weeks) in 2% or more of patients treated with SEROQUEL (doses ranging from 75 to 800 mg/day) where the incidence in patients treated with SEROQUEL was greater than the incidence in placebo-treated patients.” trials: “The information below is derived from a clinical trial database for SEROQUEL consisting of over 4300 patients. This database includes 698 patients exposed to SEROQUEL for the treatment of bipolar depression, 405 patients exposed to SEROQUEL for the treatment of acute bipolar mania (monotherapy and adjunct therapy), 646 patients exposed to SEROQUEL for the maintenance treatment of bipolar I disorder as adjunct therapy, and approximately 2600 patients and/or normal subjects exposed to 1 or more doses of SEROQUEL for the treatment of schizophrenia.” DailyMed
every row above was transcribed from the current FDA label on 2026-09-08; the full tables, including the reactions only one label lists, are on side-effect rates, drug vs placebo. the sexual side-effect rows carry each label's own underreporting caveat on the SSRI sexual side effects page.
lurasidone (Latuda)
atypical antipsychotic
- FDA approval
- 2010 · full approval journey →
- Who takes it (US, —)
- No year from 2014 to 2024 meets AHRQ’s reliability rule for this drug, so we print no count. Years not shown, under AHRQ’s reliability rule: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 (fewer than 60 survey respondents); 2022, 2023, 2024 (AHRQ masks the name in the public file).Correction (29 September 2026): An earlier version of this section took its numbers from ClinCalc DrugStats, a third-party site that republishes this survey; we now compute them from AHRQ’s public-use files ourselves. It showed 385,353 people and 2,433,438 prescriptions for 2021. No year meets AHRQ’s reliability rule for this drug, so that count is removed. It said prescriptions were up 66% since 2014; too few years meet the rule to show a trend, so that line is removed.
- Who pays (2024)
- Medicare: 853,499 claims · 124,110 beneficiariesMedicaid: ≥1,109,001 prescriptionsCommercial claims: not published in any public dataset — a real absence, not a zero.
- Boxed warning
- Yes — on the current FDA label. read it in context →
- Adverse-event reports (FAERS)
- Caveat first: FAERS counts unverified REPORTS, not patients or rates — no denominator, and attention inflates reporting. Never compare these counts head-to-head; a longer-marketed, more-prescribed drug accumulates more reports by exposure alone. how to read FAERS →20,803 all-time reports; most-reported terms: off label use, drug ineffective, anxiety
- Legal & safety record
- no dedicated record page yet; the journey page carries label history
quetiapine (Seroquel)
atypical antipsychotic
- FDA approval
- 1997 · full approval journey →
- Who takes it (US, 2024)
- 1,849,066 patients · 8,669,046 prescriptions (AHRQ MEPS)2014 → 2024: 11,456,968 → 8,669,046 prescriptions; the change is within the survey’s margin of errorCorrection (29 September 2026): An earlier version of this section took its numbers from ClinCalc DrugStats, a third-party site that republishes this survey; we now compute them from AHRQ’s public-use files ourselves. It said prescriptions were down 24% since 2014; that change is within the survey’s margin of error, so we no longer state a direction.
- Who pays (2024)
- Medicare: 9,859,922 claims · 1,488,315 beneficiariesMedicaid: ≥6,033,466 prescriptionsCommercial claims: not published in any public dataset — a real absence, not a zero.
- Boxed warning
- Yes — on the current FDA label. read it in context →
- Adverse-event reports (FAERS)
- Caveat first: FAERS counts unverified REPORTS, not patients or rates — no denominator, and attention inflates reporting. Never compare these counts head-to-head; a longer-marketed, more-prescribed drug accumulates more reports by exposure alone. how to read FAERS →191,484 all-time reports; most-reported terms: drug ineffective, off label use, toxicity to various agents
- Legal & safety record
- the full litigation & recall record →
questions for your prescriber, built from this page
this page does not tell you to start, stop or switch anything. it arms the conversation where that decision belongs. take these in:
- which of Latuda and Seroquel did you have in mind first, and what in my history points that way?
- the trials put these two close together on average. what, for me specifically, breaks the tie: another medication i take, a side effect i can't live with, sleep, weight, sexual function?
- the label lists these reactions above placebo for the one you're suggesting. which of them should i expect in the first weeks, and which would make you want to hear from me the same day?
- how long were the approval trials, and what do we know past that point?
- how will we judge whether it is working, by when, and what is the plan if it isn't?
- if i ever want to come off it, how is that done, and over how long?
- is there a cheaper generic or a formulation that changes the dosing, and does my insurance prefer one of these two?
the longer checklist, for any antidepressant, is questions to ask before starting antidepressants. if you are already on one and it feels like it stopped working, that has its own page.
What the warnings mean, drug by drug
Each explainer reads one drug's current FDA label and the studies in our library, in both directions: the boxed warnings with the label's own numbers, the trials behind the approval and how long they ran, side effects by rate, and the research since.
Questions people search
Is Latuda or Seroquel better?
No honest page can answer that in one line. Head-to-head differences between comparable psychiatric medications are usually smaller than rankings suggest, and which fits you depends on your history, other medications, and side-effect trade-offs, a prescriber conversation. What can be compared is the public record (usage, payers, label warnings, approval history, litigation), which is what this page does, with sources.
Is Latuda the same as lurasidone, and Seroquel the same as quetiapine?
Latuda is a brand name for lurasidone. Seroquel is a brand name for quetiapine. lurasidone is an atypical antipsychotic; quetiapine is an atypical antipsychotic. This page uses the generic names because the federal datasets do.
Which has fewer side effects, Latuda or Seroquel?
The two FDA labels cannot be compared head to head, in their own words, because each drug's trials ran in different people under different rules. What each label prints: Latuda (lurasidone): 9.5% (143/1508) stopped for an adverse reaction vs 9.3% (66/708) on placebo (Latuda label, SPL version 37, effective 2025-01-31). Seroquel (quetiapine): 4% stopped for an adverse reaction vs 3% on placebo (Seroquel label, SPL version 53, effective 2026-04-10). The page shows the reactions both labels list, each against its own placebo column.
Which is prescribed more, Latuda or Seroquel?
The page shows federal survey estimates we compute from AHRQ’s Medical Expenditure Panel Survey public-use files for both lurasidone and quetiapine: patients and prescriptions in the latest reliable year, and the yearly series from 2014 where AHRQ’s reliability rule allows it, with a direction stated only when the change is larger than the survey’s margin of error. Prescription volume reflects habits, prices, and marketing as much as evidence, so it is context, not a verdict.
Where these numbers come from
- Patients and prescriptions: computed by us from AHRQ's public-use Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Prescribed Medicines files, 2014 (HC-168A) to 2024 (HC-254A), with AHRQ's reliability rule (a year with fewer than 60 respondents or a relative standard error over 50% is not shown) — counts of people filling prescriptions, not outcomes. A direction is stated only when the change is larger than the survey's margin of error. Until 29 September 2026 these came from ClinCalc DrugStats, a third-party site; see the correction under each drug where a figure changed.
- Medicare/Medicaid: CMS public datasets; commercial insurance publishes no per-drug series, so it renders as an absence, never a synthesized number.
- Label facts: the drugs' current FDA labels via DailyMed — quoted in context on each drug's approval-journey page.
- FAERS: openFDA — reports, never rates; the caveat travels above every count.
- Litigation: court records and regulator documents only, on the linked record pages; settled is never adjudicated.
Explore both drugs in depth: /m/lurasidone · /m/quetiapine · or the whole library →