Quote:
Originally Posted by pirilin
Welcome back.
Lamictal is an anticonvulsant approved for BP by the FDA.
Most people consider they are taking Lamictal, and in reality are taking Lamotrigine.
Which is the generic formulation, but it's not the same.
It has proven different in pacients with epilepsy. The intended target originally
|
It has been proven to be the case for these different patients, maybe, but there is no real difference between the two: both contain lamotrigine.
For lithium, something like that (differences between generics and "innovator brands" and one generic and another) may be of importance, since their is little margin between a therapeutic and a (too) toxic dose.
Any change in dose is almost infinitely more important than which generic you use.
However, you (or your psychiatrist) might confuse lamotrigine and valproate: there is a generic sodium valproate and a patent-protected valproate semisodium. But ironically, the generic one is better than the patent-protected one for epilepsy.
It's all about scaring psychiatrists, this research. Except for meds with a narrow therapeutic range, but individual
differentdifferences are very much more important (almost infinitely, again) and so require frequent serum level check-ups.
****
.