Ever tried lamictal instead of lithium for mood?

I'm wondering how common it is for people diagnosed schizoaffective to try lamictal(lamotrigine) for the mood side of their disorder. I have heard that lamictal has less of the brain fog potential that lithium does, is on the whole less obtrusive. Currently I take lithium and risperidone, and one of the other or both is causing a lot of brain fog and memory issues.

I take lamictal and it's worked well for me. No side effects. Mood is pretty stable.

i take lamictal. these days, I think its fairly standard to try lamictal before lithium.

My pdoc gave me lamictal before lithium, in part because I was afraid of the bloodwork. Unfortunately it gave me too many side effects. With lithium I have only a small hand tremor.

I take lamictal. I'm only on 50 mg right now.

What side effects did you experience?

I was getting hot and cold flashes. I also had nystagmus, which really freaked me out. In general I just felt out of it and unwell. I've had bad luck with anti-epileptics.

I take Lamictal for mood and it has had less side effects for me vs lithium. I had a really bad memory on lithium and Lamictal doesn't affect my memory. I'm on 200 mg

Lithium caused memory problems for you? Interesting. I have a lot of memory problems, so its heartening to know that if I change something like getting of lithium, it might come back.

I'm in the process of making the switch to Lamictal. Currently on 50 milligrams of Lamictal and down to 600 of lithium. I'm hopeful, but a little concerned because I was having some panic last night and was very concerned I wouldn't sleep. I did fortunately. But last time I went through a phase of bad sleep, it really felt like I was trapped.

When I was on lamictal alone I had no memory problems. But the moment I added risperidone my memory went to ****. So it could also be playing a roll in the memory problems

I was on Lithium for several years it worked fine for my moods, but eventually, it gave me tremors and we switched to Carbamazepine (Tegretol) and after some adjustments has been okay with no side effects. Sorry I know this is about Lamictal but wanted to throw this option out there.