[Calicat]

I was diagnosed about 4 years ago with BP2. I have always had anxiety and depression since I was young. I was given Lamictal .25 and it helped tremendously with the anxiety and mild rumination which came with the anxiety. However, I noticed my cognitive skills are not as good. I am not a young person, just turned 59, and yes remembering names can be difficult at time's. Yet my thought process is not as good as before the Lamictal. I am also on .30mg Cymbalta, .5mg Klonopan along with the Lamictal. My doctor increased the Lamicatal due to work stress to .75 but since then I have reduced down to 37.5 due to extreme tiredness. (Started a new job which is less stressfull)

I am currently seeing new doctor and she gave me samples of Trintellix to help with cognitive and depression. I am stopping this drug since it makes my anxiety worse.

Long story short, has anyone else suffered with cognitive loss on their meds?
Thanks Calicat.

Yes. I take a mixture of medications and am not sure which one is the guilty party. I take a lot of lamactil (lamotrogine) 300mg.

I swear I have dropped at least 10 IQ points. I feel slow - embarrassingly. My medications cause me to forget words, some difficulty with maintaining 'high brow' conversations, and memory. I have an inability to remember names and often don't recognize people at all. My mind drifts easily. Particularly disconcerting is the loss of my ability to problem solve and perform simple tasks - math, puzzles, etc.

This is one of the things preventing me from going back to work. I have been in Retail and Retail Management for over thirty years. My inability to maintain a conversation and difficulty with short term memory are disasterous in a retail environment. There is no way I could operate a POS machine and cash handle. I am terribly anxious about this.

[StewieGG]

Yes very much so. I'm also on Lamictal and I struggle to speak properly at times, I can never think of the right words to say and get words muddled up. People who are unaware it's because of meds have said I need speech therapy. I am young, early twenties. I feel like my brain has gone to mush and its very upsetting.

[AlittleUnsteady]

I take 150mg of Lamictal, 1050mg of Lithium, 2mg of Prazosin, but I don't feel like I have cognitive issues. I'm not in school this semester though. It's possible it's there, but I haven't realized. If I'm in the middle of something and get interrupted by someone to do something else, I'll forget about something. I'm easily distracted, but feel like I've always been that way. I also don't sleep well, which can cause this as well. If Lamictal is causing cognitive issues, they're very mild for me.

[Calicat]

Thank you al for your information. I know I am not on a high dose of Lamictal but I still struggle with cognitive functioning. I have also lost hair on the top of my head and I get tired easily. Yet this medication has helped me so I will continue even with the side effects. I may wean down to .25mg. Hugs to all.

[usehername]

This might not be helpful, but I was really clear-headed on it, for the most part. The one that gave me cognitive decline was seroquel.