To be honest, I am unsure how Lamictal works for me these days. I take so many medications that I am not sure what is doing what and none of them seem to work on much of anything except for anger in mania. My depressions are still long and crippling and, while my mania is certainly not as out of control as it was once, it still causes damage and I still experience some psychosis. As for the dosage of Lamictal, I was taking 600 MG and it was just lowered to 400 MG. That is a lofty dose.

That said, after a while when I was young (15 - 20), I took only Lamictal, Zyprexa, and Celexa. Once we got to that combination, I stabilized fairly quickly (in fact, I'm unsure why my pdoc hasn't tried that combination again...I may just remind him of that). Eventually, I was weaned to only the Lamictal and I loved it. There were no side effects. I very quickly dropped the 45 lbs I had gained from the Zyprexa and I remained stable. Besides being a mood stabilizer (although it mostly works for depression) Lamictal is also known to increase the length of time between cycles. Anyway, I became so stable I eventually believed I was either misdiagnosed or healed of my bipolar and I stopped taking it. I went about 8 years unmedicated without any major episodes (except postpartum depression--and some mild ones in hindsight). Then I had a psychotic break...my stability is now history.

Overall, I believe that Lamictal is a great medication and I would recommend it.