Lamictal hangover?

Took my first dose of Lamictal last night (25 mg), and OMG, do I feel useless this morning! Sooooo groggy and out of it. Is this common? Will it go away? Thanks for any replies!

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I didn't have any issues.

I have seen people complain of groggy/hungover type feeling and a few has said they had blurry vision for a short amount of time when they first start treatment. Seems like most of the side effects go away.

If it's not something you can tolerate talk to your Pdoc .

Hope your feeling better soon.

I did- I was really tired when I started lamictal. It still knocks me out at night (which I like).

I'm glad I don't work right now--driving would be an issue! As it is, though, I have a sleep study on Thursday night and have to drive home in the morning. Yikes!

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Check with your Pdoc about taking your Lamictal before having the sleep study.. If the med snows you under like this but will most likely go away given a few weeks , The sleep study might not be accurate as lamictal "right now" is effecting you this way.

Sleep studies are a pain in the backside in general and expensive so getting the most accurate results would be in your best interests.

My pdoc says it's fine to take it for the sleep study. Last night my sleep pattern was exactly the same as "normal," which means up every hour or two all night long. I was hopeful that the Lamictal would help me sleep better, but no dice. :-( The sleep study doc also said if I have trouble falling asleep I could take a sleep aid. That made me laugh, because I already take Benadryl and medical marijuana to help me sleep (which it doesn't lol).

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Lamictal doesn't make me sleepy and it sounds like a fairly small dose you are on. I'll bet it will go away quickly.

I just had a sleep study, and they told me to take all of my meds I usually take because that shows how you normally sleep. Lamictal made me sleepy at first, but it went away fairly quickly. Now I take 150mg in the morning, and I'm fine.

Ps. I LOVE YOUR DOG!!!!

Aw, thanks! He passed a couple months ago. He was wonderful! :-)

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Lamictal made me groggy in the mornings when I first started taking it, and whenever I had an increase in the dosage. But it went away after a couple of weeks.

OMG! ME TOO! I took my first dose last night and I have been tired and nauseous all day. I feel just a little weird as well. It's strange. I can't really put my finger on the weird feeling. Just an overall weird. Like my head feels strange. My face even feel strange. Almost like a numbness in my lips. I'm so nauseous. and general fatigue.
Is this normal and will it go away. I'm on my first dose at 1 pill a day and then increasing each week until it's up to the dosage, the doc wants me at.
I don't know if this is helping or not. Although, I'm definitely not manic right now, just extremely BLAH!

Wow, that sucks! I don't have the nausea, just soooo tired. I guess these side effects go away eventually. Good luck!

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[QUOTE=gloamingone;4097096]Took my first dose of Lamictal last night (25 mg), and OMG, do I feel useless this morning! Sooooo groggy and out of it. Is this common? Will it go away? Thanks for any replies!

I started lamez 25 mg in april 2012. Went of increasing it every 10-14 days as adviced. I was 25 yrs then. Have bipolar type 2. At that time i was severely severely severely depressed. Like the worst depression I think could be possible. After starting Lamez, whenever I woke up from sleep I used to have severe bodyache , fatigue (basically psychomotor retardation). I attributed it to my depression. Which probably was true, coz even if I took a short nap in the afternoon I felt extremely fatigued after waking up. Along with that I experienced difficulty in concentrating and memory loss. At that time I attributed it to lamez cos many psych drugs and anti-convulsants( which lamez is) cause mental sluggishness, memory problems etc. I continued to have these problems till I reached 200 mg, which was around October. I was really fed up and wanted to discontinue Lamez. But I persisted out of hope cos nothing else sounded like a better option. Three months after that around Jan 2013 I started feeling improvement in my mood. It was'nt like feeling normal. It felt like less depressed. I still had lack of interest in pleasureable activity. But as my mood improved, my fatigue etc and memory and attention problems also improved. I have been on 200 mg since then. Today I fell like my depression is somewhat controlled. Like I am not suicidal. But I am not happy either. But when I wake up in the morning I feel only a little bit of bodyache. My memory and cognition problems are still there. But I feel both are cos of the disease process rather that the med.

HOWEVER, IN BETWEEN I HAD INCREASED MY DOSE AROUNF 250-300. AT THAT TIME I DID NOT FEEL BETTER. BUT MY BODYACHE AND FATIGUE RETURNED. MY DOC TOLD ME TO COME BACK TO 200. MY EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN THAT GOING BEYOND 200 DOES NOT HELP MUCH. AND DOSES BEYOND 200 DID CAUSE THE FATIGUE IN ME.

FROM READING WHAT ALL OF U HAVE WRITTEN, i FEEL THAT THE PROBLEM WITH MOST OF U MUST BE THE DISEASE PROCESS AND DEPRESSION RATHER THAN THE MEDICATION. ALTHOUGH IT IS POSSIBLE WITH LAM COS I EXPERIENCED THAT BEYOND 200MG.

ALSO, NOW I FEEL LIKE I AM 20% OF DEPRESSED THAN WHAT I USED TO BE. I EXPERIENCE THE CONCENTRATION AND MEMORY PROBLEMS. BUT THEY ARE MORE LIKELY COS OF THE CONDITION.COGNITIVE DEFECTS ARE VERY WELL KNOWN WITH BD TYPE ii.

HOPE THIS HELPS.

Hey there! I just wanted to let you know that grogginess is not typical, but we all react differently. Unlike Ziprasidone (Geodon) which made me feel like a total zombie, I have seen nothing to that effect with Lamictal yet. I have been on for a week and never feel exhausted or that zombie effect. The one thing I have noticed is extremely vivid and realistic dreams/nightmares. Hang in there!

Thanks! Geodon really did a number on me. I feel much better this morning. Still groggy, but not nearly as bad as yesterday!

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I only started with 10 mg just today and I feel a bit groggy so i can imagine you must feel worse. Keep us posted.

I just started on Lamictal as well (3 days ago) at 25mg, and I'm pretty much in the same position as you. I've definitely noticed a HUGE difference in my energy levels and I'm so groggy and drowsy. Ugh it's pretty crappy. I was told to take the dosage in the morning, but I am thinking of moving it to bedtime.

Other than the sleepiness, I haven't had any other side effects, and like others have said, it seems like once your body adjusts to the medication, they will go away.

Take care!

My pdoc has me taking it at bedtime, which is great. The grogginess is much better four days in. Still don't feel quite myself, but getting there!

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My doctor started me off at .25mg for a week, then bumped me up .25mg every week until I was at 100mg. No side effects. I was also on Effexor, which my doctor wanted to wean me off of. So he began reducing my Effexor at the same time he increased my Lamictal. No side effects. Now I'm at 300mg of Lamictal and it's the only thing that's holding me together...even though I'm still rapid cycling, and I have really bad days and really good days. I totally believe it kept me from going back in. I was a mess after almost a year of nothing but increasing Effexor and changing meds every 3 weeks.

Wow, no withdrawals from Effexor? That's fantastic! I once went off that over a period of three weeks (orders from my primary when I didn't have a pdoc). Ended up hospitalized with a complete psychotic break. I have a feeling my pdoc will want me off Effexor if Lamictal works, so I'm a little concerned!

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Everybody has a different biological makeup in their brains, so it's impossible to say how anything will effect anybody. I just know that my psych is really good at tapering off and putting me on new meds without withdrawal symptoms. The only one we're having trouble with is Wellbutrin. He tried to take me down from 400mg to 200mg and within a couple of days I was on the ledge. He immediately put me back on what I was before, waited for me to come back up and then put me on 300mg of Wellbutrin slow release in the mornings. It worked perfectly for me.

I think my meds are working as best as they can. I have to keep remembering that the meds are just a way to help you deal until you can learn to cope. Learning how to cope is taking me a while, though. I do, however, wish the Lamictal did a little better job at helping me not cycle so quickly. It's more than I can take some days going from high to low to high to low to high, etc. etc.