[Blue Poppy]

Hello there,

I am on lamictal as my mood stabilizer.

A few months ago I went on oral birth control. It was shortly thereafter that I had another depressive episode.

Tonight I was doing some research on the internet and found some information that oral birth control lowers the concentration of lamictal in the blood?

Any of you been told this by your psychiatrist/general practitioner?

I told my psychiatrist I was going on oral birth control but he never mentioned anything.

[cocoabeans]

Yes, I discussed this with my doctor. I brought it up concerned that lamictal would have effects on "the pill" but, it doesn't. You might get more side effects from lamictal when you go on your pill free/placebo week too.

Of course, oral contraceptives can cause depression too.

[PiperLeigh]

My NP specifically asked if I was taking an oral contraceptive when prescribing lamictal because she said they do have an effect on lamictal. (In my case I do not take BCP so we did not discuss further.) Whenever I have read about lamictal side effects (of which I have had many), I've seen warnings to epileptic patients that birth control pills may change the amount of lamictal and decrease the seizure threshold. I'm pretty sure it is a legitimate issue, though I'm not sure how they could accurately know exactly when and by how much to alter the dosage correctly of someone wanted to take both.

I hope you figure it out and feel better soon. ++