I once had a diagnosis on bi polar and was on tegretol for 7 years. I didn't have any side effects but I don't think it did anything. I was misdiagnosed for complicated reasons and I don't blame my pdoc for it.

I started taking Lamical 3 months ago for MDD, it is an augmenter to an AD in my case. Within the first week I started noticing a big improvement in my mood. My mood got better and better but didn't really help with my other depression symptoms. So after a month we switched my Effexor to Fetzima and Lamictal and Fetzima are the best meds I have ever taken. Have worked the best. No side effects with the Lamictal. I like it and think of it as very clean for some reason. I can't really say why but that is what my intuition says.