[dasiy6]

Please help..... I have recently started lamictal. I have finished the dose pack and jumped from the 100 dose to 200 the next week. I am feeling really crappy . I have a bad headache, ringing in my ears, achy and am really tired. With all this going on I am not even sure it is helping my depression. I know that these are somewhat common side effects.........my question is HOW LONG WILL THIS LAST???? I have been taking the entire dose in the am and will try to split the dose this evening. Thanks for any help you can give me. I also take effexor xr 600, provigil 200 along with the lamictal in the am and clozaril 100-150 at night..thanks

[darkeyes]

I have been on Lamictal for about 3 yrs. was up to 300mgs and now have been weaned down to 150mg. I've been fortunate, no major side effects, pdoc titrated carefully to my former full dose.
As far as seeing any "mental" change, it takes about a month, so do not despair.
Have you asked your doc about this? Maybe your other meds are re-acting with this?
Out of the various meds I have been tried on, Lamictal has been the best for me, but I know everyone is different.
Practically every med can have some side effects, many are only temporary, and some very mild.
The best response I can offer is that you contact the prescribing doc and talk to him or her.
Hope all goes well for you.

DE

[debi]

Hi daisy (err, dasiy?)

I have been taking lamictal since last fall, for Bipolar 2. I am not a medical professional or anything even remotely close, so do talk with your doctor about any suggestions I (or anyone else, for that matter) make regarding your meds. However, I have been on tons of different meds over the years, and do try to read everything I can find about the meds I am taking (call me paranoid, go ahead, I'm used to it!)

My concern for you is that your doctor may have you increasing your dosages too quickly. Others may disagree with me here. But, as an example, here's what I went through to get up to 200mgs. I started off with only 12.5 mgs in the morning. After three days, my doc allowed me to take 12.5 mgs in the morning, and another 12.5 in the afternoon. This lasted at least a week. After having no side effects from that, I took 25 in the morning and 25 in the afternoon. After about 3 weeks of that, I took 50 mgs in the morning, and still only 25 in the afternoon. You get the picture. About every 2-3 weeks I increased my dosage by only 25 mgs. Now (5 months later) I am taking 100 mgs in the morning and 100 in the afternoon. My psychiatrist (who has degrees from Harvard, U. of Michigan and UCLA) absolutely forbade me from taking all my Lamictal at once. And I have never had any serious side effects from *any* of my meds, so it's not like she was being extra cautious.

I hope I'm not scaring you or anything. That's not my intention. But I have to believe that if you slowed down your increases the side effects would be less severe. Also, like the last reply said, it will probably take a few months to reach an effective level in your bloodstream. Finally, Lamictal has some anti-depressant characteristics, but it is primarily a mood stabilizer. It isn't surprising to me that you haven't noticed much of a change in your depression if the only med change you've had in the last few months has been to add the Lamictal. Most psychiatrists will only change one med at a time, otherwise they don't know which one worked and/or which one caused bad side-effects. Maybe your doctor is waiting to add more anti-depressant meds *after* the Lamictal has reached an effective level.

I hope that helps. Sometimes, if I feel I get good advice online, or if I feel like a post I made conveyed my feelings particularly well, I will print it out and take the copy in to my doctor. On more than one occasion, my doctor has gotten a better picture of what I'm feeling by reading what I've written as opposed to just hearing it from me. Just an idea.

PM me if you have any questions for me.

Debi

PS: What kind of a doctor is prescribing your meds? A regular physician working w/ a psychologist, or is it a licensed psychiatrist?

[Larry_Hoover]

You are describing common side effects of lamictal, and you may have escalated your dose too quickly. Lamictal is one of those drugs that really has to be increased slowly, to avoid some potentially serious adverse effects.

I can't tell what dose regime you were on, just from your description of a "dose pack", but here is the recommended dose schedule:

25 mg daily for two weeks
50 mg daily in weeks 3 and 4
100 mg daily in week five
200 mg daily, in divided doses, week 6

If that last dose increases increases side effects, then going to 150 for a week can smooth the transition up to the usual target of 200 mg.

See: Table 13, http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/lamotrigine_ids.htm

Lar

my dosage is still at 25mg after two and a half weeks. the psych has determined that we need lab tests as it appears that my metabolism is too slow.....the rate that was quoted you was also what my psych wrote out for me...

[dasiy6]

The dose pack you described is exactly like the one I completed:
25 mg daily for two weeks
50 mg daily in weeks 3 and 4
100 mg daily in week five
200 mg daily, in divided doses, week 6
the only difference being that I took the 200 mg. all in one dose....not good. I tried splitting the dose last night and although I slept somewhat fitfully because of the headache, I felt a bit better during the day...but I have been living on tylenol too . I also noticed a lump on what I think is my thyroid gland today so I will call my regular dr. and maybe my feeling ill has something to do with that too.....oh well thank you for all your help..

[dasiy6]

Hello Deb.........yes my doctor is a psychiatrist and Registered Pharmacist. I will try to split the dose and hope for the best. Thank you for your post.....