Lamotrigine?

I am currently on lamictal and titrating up slowly. I have been on it for over 8 months now. It has stabillized me, no more hypomania, although I feel as though I have stabilized in a low. No trouble with rashes or anything like that though. After over a year of being really ill, it was this med that started to turn the tables in my favor.

I have been on lamictal 200mg and wellbutrin 150mg since 2003 and they worked well together for me until the fall of 2010 when my psychiatrist added abilify which has been helpful since going from 5mg to 10mg and my wellbutrin was increased to 300mg.

Bipolar I plus sleep apnea. My other major medication is androgel because my body no longer produces enough testosterone.

I was wondering if anyone became more depressed and suicidal on lamictal. I have for the past 2 weeks been titrating up currently at the 50mg stage of it and I know its not a theraputic dose but my doc said it had anti depressant properties, and me and anti depressants dont mix. Just wondering

I'm right there with you in the process of titering up...start 50 mg tomorrow. Had one really bad day of very intense suicidal thoughts, but then back to okay. If it had gone another day, I would have called my NP. But I wouldn't necessarily say it was the lamictal in my case. Intrusive suicidal thoughts have been an ongoing problem for me.

I called today, im done with this stuff, everyday for me has been rough, accept for a few days that where good. Im not motivated, depressed, cant remember ****. I didnt have this before and I know its a low dose but ive had more suicidal thoughts than ever on this stuff.

Hope this doesn't trigger anyone, that's why I put the little icon up.

The same thing happened to me, the 4th day I was on Lamictal. As depressed and f'ed up as I was, I wasn't ordinarily suicidal; but one night my youngest son and I had this enormous fight and he decided to shut the phone off and ignore me. In my highly-charged state, I thought he was totally turning his back on me and I just lost it. My poor husband held me and let me cry and rage, which was a good thing because I had a bottle of Ativan that I was about to eat, just because my heart was broken and life wasn't worth living if my son shut me out of his.

It was so bad that I even texted my other kids and told them I was thinking about doing it. What a s****y thing to do to your adult children.....Even as I was texting them I realized that I really didn't want to die, I only wanted the pain to stop. I don't know if they'll ever understand that. But it's never been that bad again.

I liked it, too, but it was not possible for me to take 100 mg. once daily. It was too much and threw me into a desire to spend money. I was okay with 15 mg. and it worked really well until I developed acne--it's being reported on the internet, now, too.

Sooooo, I had to give it up. Prozac @ 10 mg. 1 daily does it for me, along with Deplin 7.5 mg. 1 daily. Deplin is called a food med--it's folate in concentrated form that can cross the blood-brain barrier.

Approximately 7 out of 10 people who are depressed have a folate deficiency. If
the necessary enzymes are not inherited to metabolize folic acid into folate, the brain will be deficient in folate. Only one way to know if we have the enzymes---that's to have genetic testing.

However, my doctor (psychiatrist) felt that it if improved feeling tone, there was no need to undergo genetic testing. The cost is about $20. per month.

Frankly, I was happy to get off a mood stabilizer, although for those who can take it, it is a very, very good medication.

I hope you get along just fine with it.

Genetic

I have been on Lamictal for a few years. I had a manic episode about three years ago and pdoc added lithium because the Lamictal wasn't working alone. I have been on lithium since then. Just happens I was seeing pdoc yesterday and we are going to try to eliminate the lithium. I have a very flat affect and we think it may be that I no longer need the lithium, Lamictal alone may be okay for me now. Also seems that most of my med complaints (side effects) are a result of the lithium so I am hoping that I will feel just by eliminating some of the side effects. I also take Cymbalta for my anti-depressant. We are going to leave that alone.

I am not familiar with trileptal but I wanted to throw my two cents in since we are both taking lithium. Hope you do well with the med change.

What. The. Heck. Third week titrating up. I find myself excessively (involuntarily) blinking. I've seen people do that, but I have never done that. It started two hours after I had my latest increase (double) dose. I think to myself that it can't possibly be a side effect. But then I'm thinking why in the world is this happening and so noticeably a few hours after upping my dose. I'm curious as all get out. So I go and "google" lamictal/lamotrigine and eye blinking and find a number of hits for other people reporting that as a side effect. Just strange. I found a case study on it and while it is all greek to me, it said in the case they looked at it could have been the result of "inhibition of excitatory neurotransmitters by lamotrigine, which led to secondary dysfunction of the dopaminergic system." Huh. This isn't a big deal, but it is WEIRD. Maybe it's temporary. Maybe it's one of those random things that happens to people sometimes and is not related to the med at all. I have an apt with my NP in a few days and if it's still happening, I'll mention it of course.

Piper, call your NP in the AM no reason to wait and see ... All the drugs have side effects .. I say its always best to get medical advice if its not one of the most " common" side effects .

Good luck

I have been on it since August and I like it, no side effects at all. It seems to help. I am steady at 100, when I tried to go up I went suicidal so you have to make sure you get the right dosage for your chemistry. It is like that with all meds.

Hi there,

I too have excessive blinking and I am on lamictal. It was a lot worse when I was taking wellbutrin along with the lamictal. It has mostly settled but every now and then, for reasons unknown to me, it comes back! Mostly it is very annoying...........

Blue Poppy