[glowsinthedark]

1. Do you take in the morning or at night? with food or without?

2. Did you ever get dizzy or nauseous from it? How long did these side effects take to lessen?

3. If you have to stop lamictal because of the rash, what do they do about the effects of withdrawal? I've had terrible experiences getting off SSRIs and benzos even though I tapered extremely slowly...I can't imagine how one would survive stopping cold turkey.

4. alcohol?

I know that my concerns come from a deeply anxious and somewhat irrational place, but please be patient with me...I've dealt with health anxiety since I was 4 and I'm trying REALLY hard to get this first little lamictal pill down the hatch!

[LacunaCoiler]

I take all of my meds together at night. Usually I take them about 3 hrs or so after eating dinner and they don't cause any upset stomach or anything like that. I didn't get any side (at least none that I can remember) but I do notice they don't do well with alcohol. I used to be a heavy weight when I was younger and could down shot after shot or beer after beer just fine (never experienced a hangover once in my life) but now that I'm on lamictal I can barely drink 2 or so drinks without feeling buzzed and light headed. That's the only down side I have with the med.

[benzenering]

I take 200 mg Lamictal at night, right at bedtime, with all my other meds except levothyroxine. I take it on an empty stomach. I don't get any side effects from it. According to my pdoc you have to get off Lamictal gradually or it could trigger seizures....not sure what they do when you get "the rash". I imagine they do a quick taper but I'm just guessing at this. I drink quite a bit of alcohol and don't notice any different effects, so I'm different than LacunaCoiler...or maybe I'm just used to it

[5150DirtDiva]

Originally Posted by glowsinthedark

1. Do you take in the morning or at night? with food or without?

2. Did you ever get dizzy or nauseous from it? How long did these side effects take to lessen?

3. If you have to stop lamictal because of the rash, what do they do about the effects of withdrawal? I've had terrible experiences getting off SSRIs and benzos even though I tapered extremely slowly...I can't imagine how one would survive stopping cold turkey.

4. alcohol?

I know that my concerns come from a deeply anxious and somewhat irrational place, but please be patient with me...I've dealt with health anxiety since I was 4 and I'm trying REALLY hard to get this first little lamictal pill down the hatch!

1- I take half in the morning on an empty stomach and half an hour before I want to go to bed.

2- I do not get dizzy or nauseous.

3- Rash is very unlikely, (8 out of 1,000 or 0.08%). Nearly all cases of life-threatening rashes caused by LAMICTAL have occurred within 2 to 8 weeks of treatment initiation. Follow your providers schedule and you will be fine.

4- I try not to drink, but I really like to. I limit myself to once a week 1-4 drinks. But really you are not supposed to drink on it I think.

[IntentOnHealing]

[QUOTE Rash is very unlikely, (8 out of 1,000 or 0.08%). marked by a pattern of ongoing instability in moods, behavior, self-image, and functioning. These experiences often result in impulsive actions and unstable relationships.Nearly all cases of life-threatening rashes caused by LAMICTAL have occurred within 2 to 8 weeks of treatment initiation. .[/QUOTE]

Wow. Thanks for the good info. I had the rash. I didn't know it was so rare. They did so a quick taper. They kind of made a semi-big deal of it, I thought later, though at the time I was simply like, "Why does my shrink keep calling? Why does my GP keep calling?" I later had to have multiple rounds of blood work and scans of my liver. All the damage was temporary/reversible.

I only had side effects with lamictal when I first started it (sort of a flu feeling). However, with each dose increase (increased 25mg per week), the side effects lessened. By the time I hit 75mg, I had no side effects at all. That's important to know because you may feel more side effects starting lamictal but they probably will subside within a few weeks as your dose increases strangely enough.

I took my lamictal in the mornings. I don't think it really mattered when I took it; it didn't make me tired or nauseous.

SJS is extremely rare. It wasn't something that was ever an issue for me. At one point I had a rash, but my doctor felt pretty certain it was just a coincidental rash from something else and didn't panic too much about it. Sure enough, the rash went away within a day or so with no further problems. SJS rash, on those rare occasions that it does occur, is usually accompanied by other symptoms, not just a basic rash.

I never had any problem tapering off of lamictal.

My husband had to taper off lamictal because he was having memory issues at doses above 75 mgs. (The taper was not a problem for him either.) Honestly, the memory problem side effect is probably much more common than SJS and gets very little exposure; SJS is dramatic and very dangerous, so that is the side effect you hear most about when in actuality it affects only a very small portion of people on lamictal. But, again, even the memory problems only affect certain people. I never had any memory problems on lamictal and I was on a higher dose than my husband ever was. You just have to know yourself and know when things aren't feeling right. Oh, and my husband's memory issues reversed themselves once he got off lamictal, so no permanent damage.

Alcohol? As in all things when taking meds, moderation is the key. I'm not much of a drinker, so it was pretty much a non-issue, but when I do drink, I limit myself to one or two drinks.

[catlover21]

I take 200 mg twice a day morning and night without food. I've never had any problems out of lamictal, including the rash. I also take a dose of lithium with it, as well as Paxil, klonopin, and abilify. It's a good mix for me but everyone is different. I started off with just lamictal and it was effective until I got older and started having more mood disturbances. Good luck!

[bioChE]

I take 200mg in the AM. Tried 300mg for a while and started to have blurred/double vision. When I was on 300 I tried to split AM/PM, but found it disturbed my sleep when I'd take it at night. A lot of people are fine with PM, though. Just have to find what works for you.

I used to take 300mg of lamictal per day, 150mg in the morning and the rest at night. At first I had zero side effects but once I increased it to 300mg I got the "dreaded" rash and had to stop cold turkey. I didn't have any withdrawal symptoms like I did with other meds (seroquel, clozapine). The rash went away after a few days and I was fine.

[Victoria'smom]

. Do you take in the morning or at night? with food or without? I take it at night without food I'm on 50 mg

2. Did you ever get dizzy or nauseous from it? How long did these side effects take to lessen? I got no side effects

3. If you have to stop lamictal because of the rash, what do they do about the effects of withdrawal? I've had terrible experiences getting off SSRIs and benzos even though I tapered extremely slowly...I can't imagine how one would survive stopping cold turkey. I've gone cold turkey without any effects.

4. alcohol? I don't drink

[reb569]

My daughter was put on Lamictal while IP. They were too agressive increasing the dosage and she got the rash, so they pulled her off of it. After a week, they put her on Tegratol.

[Guiness187055]

1. Do you take in the morning or at night? with food or without? Morning no food.

2. Did you ever get dizzy or nauseous from it? How long did these side effects take to lessen? I don't get dizzy or nauseous.

3. If you have to stop lamictal because of the rash, what do they do about the effects of withdrawal? I've had terrible experiences getting off SSRIs and benzos even though I tapered extremely slowly...I can't imagine how one would survive stopping cold turkey. The rash is extremely rare.

4. alcohol? I am a recovering alcoholic so I don't drink

[fishin fool]

I take 150mg of lamictal in the evening about an hour after dinner.
I do get a little dizzy now and then but I am not 100% sure which one
of my meds does it.

[xRavenx]

Originally Posted by glowsinthedark

1. Do you take in the morning or at night? with food or without?

2. Did you ever get dizzy or nauseous from it? How long did these side effects take to lessen?

3. If you have to stop lamictal because of the rash, what do they do about the effects of withdrawal? I've had terrible experiences getting off SSRIs and benzos even though I tapered extremely slowly...I can't imagine how one would survive stopping cold turkey.

4. alcohol?

I know that my concerns come from a deeply anxious and somewhat irrational place, but please be patient with me...I've dealt with health anxiety since I was 4 and I'm trying REALLY hard to get this first little lamictal pill down the hatch!

I take one pill in the AM and one pill in the evening. I can't determine if there was any dizziness since it's hard to tell when on multiple pills. I think Seroquel is the med that makes me dizzy at times: not the Lamictal. I never felt nauseous on it. Lamictal never gave me the rash or any skin problems. I will have a drink from time to time on it, but I notice I drink a lot less alcohol when on it. I used to have at least 1-2 drinks almost daily at one period of time, but I only drink occasionally now due to not having much desire to drink.

[Naynay99]

I take lamictal in the morning and at bedtime. My current pdoc wanted me to take it all in 1 dose but I prefer twice a day. I don't take it on an empty stomach but I am on a lot of other meds so I couldn't say which ones make me nauseous if I take it without eating anything.
Never got a rash.
I do wonder if my vision issues (I need reading glasses after always having perfect vision but it could just be I am getting old!) and sun sensitivity (I burn very easily) are connected with lamictal though.
My old pdoc who put me on it basicallly said drinking wasn't a good idea but wasn't really dangerous either. He didn't want to say that mixing it with alcohol would cause some awful reaction just to have me try it and be fine and then think of him as lying to me... but I am not a big drinker.

[glowsinthedark]

Thanks everyone!!! your responses helped me a lot. I took my first dose about an hour ago -- something I've been meaning to do the past four years

[bioChE]

Originally Posted by glowsinthedark

Thanks everyone!!! your responses helped me a lot. I took my first dose about an hour ago -- something I've been meaning to do the past four years

Good job! Keep us posted on how it works for you.