[starryprince]

Hey there! I'm starting on a low dose (25 mg) of Lamictal for my depression and I am very sensitive to side effects. My psychiatrist is getting frustrated with me because I've had side effects on everything I've taken, with the most intense side effect being seizures.

I'm wondering what side effects others have gotten on Lamictal. I would like this to work because I don't want to keep aggravating my psychiatrist and I'd like to have something that works.

Thanks a lot for your help!

[Skeezyks]

I developed the Lamictal rash which can morph into a life threatening condition called Stevens-Johnson syndrome. As I recall, I developed the rash after about 6 weeks being on Lamictal which I believe is about typical.

[*Laurie*]

About a month in I developed a very slight rash at my hairline on my forehead. I really don't think it was a dangerous rash. Lamictal never did anything for me, but it sure helps a lot of people. I hope you're one of them!

[Nammu]

The rash is very rare.

[xRavenx]

The rash that can kill you is rare. I'm not a doctor, but I have read that people are often more prone to get the rash if they taper too fast, and if they are fairly new to being on the drug. In other words, as time goes by with no side effects, you may be out of the woods as far as having to worry so much about the rash.

However, I know some people who have complained it makes them feel itchy. That's a different kind of issue, but of course I'd monitor closely and call the pdoc if I had skin issues of any sort, just to be safe. Personally though, I have not had any dermatological issues from Lamictal, nor have I had any other significant side effects.

25 mg is a baby dose, but that's good in the sense you'll be able to see how you react to it. Sometimes people are more prone to suffer side effects as they taper higher. I've climbed up to 400 mg, FYI. The taper takes forever, but it's one of the only meds I've taken that has not had any annoying side effects for me personally, unlike some of my other meds. Good luck with it!

[popuri88]

I didn't really have any side effects on lamotrigine to begin with. I was taking paroxetine hcl (20mg) and it set me into hypomania, so my psychiatrist prescribed it to hold me down. I take 25mg twice a day, a low dose.

I'm taking it for a month and noticed it's making me more depressed. It could be either lamotrigine or my paroxetine dosage that was lowered (not a good idea either tbh), but I'm now confident it's the lamotrigine bc I ran out of it on tuesday and, after having a 2-day period of insomnia, agitation and hypomania, I'm suddenly feeling... good?

Idk if this is a weird withdraw symptom and I'll fall on my face in a couple of days, once it leaves my systems. But I'm not even impulsively reacting to things I'd normally react. Anyone ever experienced this?

[bronzeowl]

I never got the rash. It's rare, by my understanding.

I did, however, get severe headaches and loss of appetite.

I got a bad full body rash in 2013 when my old psychiatrist upped by dosage from 25mg to 50mg within the space of a week. After that I was on Trileptal for three years. My current psychiatrist put me back on Lamictal, but we slowly increased by dosage by 12.5mg every two weeks until we built up to 200mg. I didn't get any rashes or itching. We will likely be increasing my dose further.

One possible side effect of being on Lamictal might be that I'm more sensitive/teary than I was when I took it in combination with Abilify. I might ask my psychiatrist to let me go back on Abilify. The good thing about Lamictal, at least for me, is that it has balanced out my anger/irritability issues which were very obvious when I was on Trileptal. I'm also not as depressed as I was when I took only Abilify. However, Lamictal has not helped with brain fog and I don't sleep as well as I did when I took it in combination with Abilify.

I don't have as much of an appetite as I did with Abilify, but this might be normal because Abilify is known to increase appetite. I put on about 10 pounds between Dec to March, likely because of the Abilify but perhaps also because I was walking less because of cold weather.

[Mountaindewed]

I've been so itchy, i wake up multiple times a night. I wonder if it's my Lamictal. It seemed to start around that time. Besides that, I have nightmares and teeth problems from Lamictal. But, it's weight neutral so I'd rather deal with these side effects then weight problems.

[BlessedRhiannon]

I've been on 150 mg for a while now and have had no side effects what so ever. I'm usually very sensitive to medication, so I feel lucky that I haven't had any side effects.

[starryprince]

Thank you SO much everyone for responding! Sorry I didn't respond in a while. Life has been hectic.

So far the only side effect is a lack of appetite, which isn't bad! I hope things continue to go well in the future.

[StarMan]

Hi. Re Lamictal, I am on the maximum therapeutic dose of 300 mg with 1 mg of chlonazapam as a prn for episodes of anxiety. Total side effects include ataxia, constipation and severe headaches - which I treat with 1000 mg of paracetamol.

Unlike other posts I've read today, I am not experiencing memory loss. They have not been erased. Instead I'm having a lot of trouble with memory recall. To restate, I am not losing memories - when a friend helps me with something I can not recall, I say something like, "Oh yeah, now I remember". The memory I am having trouble recalling can be from an hour or so minutes earlier or it can be a much older. Examples include the spelling of common words.

As for cognitive deficits, I am finding the daily newspaper crossword puzzle more of challenge. But that's all I have noticed.

Please any comments / suggestions about the recall problem? (I have told my prescribing psychiatrist, but he is defaulting to the usual wait and see response.)

PS Are there any antidepressants or mood stabilizers that do not cause sexual dysfunction? Any at all? Help a guy please.

[MikeDelta]

i just started as well, ive been on 50 for about 2 weeks now and am working my way up to a hundred till i see my pdoc in a few weeks... I really havent had any issues, things have actually been pleasant...

[with or without you]

I just started lamictal at 25 mg today. Of course, it is way too early to tell what is going to happen with me, and I am still feeling sick with no appetite because I just withdrew from a MAOI. Like you, I am extremely sensitive to medication bc of side effects, but I unfortunately have a history of developing a quick tolerance where the benefits of a drug go away. It's the ultimate worst case scenario.

The MAOI made me irritable, angry, and all of my anxiety (including my social anxiety, which I had done so much work on since 1999 when I was 17) came roaring back. Lost some friendships. I also have about three moods or "states" per day - panic and terror in my chest upon waking up OR a hangover feeling; a more settled in, evened out mood during the afternoon; and finally, the "wound up" mood at night when I don't want to go to bed and I don't feel like I need sleep, I want to stay up doing all sorts of things and I actually get more social. But by the time Saturday rolls around...I pay for the lack of sleep all week and I can hardly get out of bed & become really depressed partly because I beat myself up for not "parenting" myself well enough.

I rarely cry in therapy, but on Thursday I got teary and told my therapist that I would like to have just ONE mood per day, even if it's a bad mood.

I am not the typical lamictal patient - I have been told by at least 3 psychiatrists that I do not have bipolar. I don't show enough markers for it other than the elevated mood at night and not sleeping. This medication is being attempted by my new pdoc who feels that my mood swings need to be evened out and I agree with him. Some of them have frightened me and they're way more than just an anxiety attack sometimes. My official diagnosis remains MDD, Severe.

I'll try to remember to check in on this thread. Good luck.

[EmilyTheStrange]

While titrating I had a lot of headaches with pressure behind my eyes especially, a hayfever kind of feeling which went after a few days, lack of sleep and bizarre dreams (mostly because the doc said take before bed, actually if I take it any later than midday it affects my sleep). It gives me a wired feeling a couple of hours after taking, then really tired by mid afternoon.
I went up to 200mg and felt constantly down with flatline emotion. So the doc put it up to 300mg (go figure) where I ended up really depressed and with worse memory recall problems and also seeing things that didn't happen. Like, I saw my colleague doing something at work, but when I went back everything was still untouched. Like a past memory was dumped over reality.
I was thinking everyone was gaslighting me as I was sure things had been said and done.
My GP told me to reduce the dose again, and within two days I felt less depressed.

The side effects definitely ease off over time though. It just took longer than I thought.
So, it has worked as a mood stabiliser, it just stabilises me at a constant depressed level.

[reb569]

My daughter was put on lamictal during a hospitalization last fall. They were aggressive with dosage increase and she got the rash. I told her regular pdoc how quickly they upped her dose and he said it was way too fast. She ended up on tegratol for mood stabilization. Now two antidepressants too.

[with or without you]

Ugh, started getting drowsy from Lamictal 3 days ago (Day 6). Pdoc told me I could switch to taking it at night. I'm still not able to sleep it all off. This sucks!

No sign of a rash yet.

[VanGore28]

You shouldn't worry about aggravating your doctor, it is their job to try and help you! Don't settle for what they think suffices, keep going until you find the perfect match. If they are showing frustration that is not very professional.

[hermitix]

Coincidentally, lamictal is an anti-epileptic / anti-convulsant. A lot of epilepsy drugs are also used to treat bipolar. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a link between the two disorders.