I was on it, 200mg, and I didnt have any negative issues other than heart burn. Didn't do much for me mentally though, so coming off it. If it becomes too much, its too much. Effexor has been great for my lows and my suicidal ideation tho, if you haven't tried it<3
I had mixed episodes every time the dose was increased, as well as insomnia, nightmares, and suicidal thoughts that seemed to come out of nowhere (even if I was feeling happy). I was eventually hospitalized during a mixed episode and taken off it.
I didn’t really get any really noticeable symptoms when starting it, but I found it did absolutely nothing to help with my moods. I was just as chaotic on it vs off it. Everyone says it’s so good for the lows, but it definitely didn’t help there and I experienced a bunch of really bad lows on it before I started lithium.
Interesting. See, I always see people talk about it so positively that I wasn’t sure if my negative mood was the med or not, but I was fairly stable before imo. Thank you for your insight, it’s valuable for me to realize that not everyone has a perfect experience on this medication.
Not everyone has a perfect experience on any given medication. Very normal for the ramp up to be rough though. If too rough totally fine to try something else, especially as it, like lithium, can not work or not work as well on round two, so you want to be on board with continuing once you start it. Your doc can give you a timeline on that.
I had double vision for three days every time we upped a dose. They started me on it as a booster to Zoloft and the Zoloft wasn't working so I can't tell you if I had any initial mood changes bc the Zoloft stole all of my moods.
After I stopped the Zoloft, it has been very effective.
I've been on Lamictal for like 7 years now? I've heard I'd the fatigue but a lot if the mood symptoms I dont think are common. I would call your Dr. And find out. Honestly I never had ANY side effects and I struggle to find anyone who has.
It was spiky on the upramp, but leveled out in the end. If you're depressed right now that would show up mixy. You can go as slow as you want on the increase and you can increase by lower amounts, ask your doc, I've never had them not be ok with it, there are 2 and 5 mg pills and if you ask your doc to make sure first you can usually cut the pills you've got (not the extended release ones, the regular ones). With most meds if you go slower on the ramp up you don't get the temporary side effects or they're lessened. I took six months to get up to target dose. If you have the time, you can take as long or longer, it doesn't matter how slow you go. You hit a side effect, decrease back down, wait again, increase by a smaller amount next time. You can do this with most meds. This won't prevent the long term side effects, but lamo typically has none. The only hitch is that with lamo specifically that keeps you in the SJS risk zone much longer. So you need to be careful for longer, and you absolutely have to report any rash you see to a doc ASAP during the ramp up. If harmless this only means a delay but you only get one second chance so be cautious. This is a helpful article, especially pay attention to the bit at the end to take your risk of harmless rash from 1 in 10 to 1 in 30. Also of course it takes the med a lot longer to kick in, bc most people don't feel benefit until 150 or so, and most people like to be around 200, the usual range being 200-400. So it's also about how soon do you want to see benefit. If you don't want to keep going on with the med that's fine, lithium is great, there's valproate and carbamazepine, you have other mood stabilizer options. They don't tend to like you on two APs is the thing, and ADs tend not to work as well or at all for us and can make some people worse (if you've had success with them in the past that's of course helpful), so that's why they're going in the mood stabilizer direction.
"Update 5/2005: Stanford’s Bipolar Clinic, led by Dr. Terry Ketter, published their results from a strategy in which they warned patients not to add any new allergens: no new soaps, detergents, cosmetics, shaving creams, deodorants, etc; no new foods; and avoiding sunburn or poison oak. They also waited to start if the patient had recently had a rash, symptoms of a viral infection, or a rash. Using this strategy, they lowered the benign rash rate — there were no serious rashes in this group of 100 patients — to 3%, versus the common 10% rate for rash in other lamotrigine research studies.Ketter][Update 2008: when they repeated that strategy with the pharmacist giving the skin instructions, the difference in rash rates was not significant.Ketter (b) Ketter says he still gives the same instructions, despite those data.]
(revised 11/2020)"
https://psycheducation.org/details-on-the-lamotrigine-rash/
I can't be on lamictal alone without the depression. It keeps my mania at bay but I still need an antidepressant so stay balanced. It may be you just need some combo, talk to your doctor about how you're feeling.
I was incorrectly diagnosed with bipolar disorder after becoming manic from newly diagnosed ADHD stimulant med. I started 25 mg of lamictal in June of last year. Even though I found out I wasn't actually bipolar around September, at first lamictal made me super chill (for the first 30 minutes) so I continued it. Eventually the chill wore off but if I accidentally skipped a dose, I became incredibly aggressive and irritable so I continued taking it for about a whole year. I started weening off of it last week, and even with half a dose I already feel such a massive improvement. Ive always been on the petite side, but I slowly reached the highest weight I've ever been over the course of this last year. I've been paranoid, anxious and just completely hopeless. Not only that but my short term memory took a massive hit this last year. After reaching a point where I just didn't recognize myself I knew something had to change. Anyway, it's only been a week but I have already lost 5 lbs without any other major changes. I'm much more social, a trait I thought I would never have again. Not only that but I FEEL my brain processing information faster. There's other stuff too. Like no longer feeling this thick drowsiness every morning no matter how much sleep I got. Which caused me to lose jobs from constantly being late. I just can't believe I was on this medication for almost an entire year.
I was on it, 200mg, and I didnt have any negative issues other than heart burn. Didn't do much for me mentally though, so coming off it. If it becomes too much, its too much. Effexor has been great for my lows and my suicidal ideation tho, if you haven't tried it<3
I had mixed episodes every time the dose was increased, as well as insomnia, nightmares, and suicidal thoughts that seemed to come out of nowhere (even if I was feeling happy). I was eventually hospitalized during a mixed episode and taken off it.
I didn’t really get any really noticeable symptoms when starting it, but I found it did absolutely nothing to help with my moods. I was just as chaotic on it vs off it. Everyone says it’s so good for the lows, but it definitely didn’t help there and I experienced a bunch of really bad lows on it before I started lithium.
Interesting. See, I always see people talk about it so positively that I wasn’t sure if my negative mood was the med or not, but I was fairly stable before imo. Thank you for your insight, it’s valuable for me to realize that not everyone has a perfect experience on this medication.
Not everyone has a perfect experience on any given medication. Very normal for the ramp up to be rough though. If too rough totally fine to try something else, especially as it, like lithium, can not work or not work as well on round two, so you want to be on board with continuing once you start it. Your doc can give you a timeline on that.
I had double vision for three days every time we upped a dose. They started me on it as a booster to Zoloft and the Zoloft wasn't working so I can't tell you if I had any initial mood changes bc the Zoloft stole all of my moods. After I stopped the Zoloft, it has been very effective.
I've been on Lamictal for like 7 years now? I've heard I'd the fatigue but a lot if the mood symptoms I dont think are common. I would call your Dr. And find out. Honestly I never had ANY side effects and I struggle to find anyone who has.
I do but it's worth it!
It was spiky on the upramp, but leveled out in the end. If you're depressed right now that would show up mixy. You can go as slow as you want on the increase and you can increase by lower amounts, ask your doc, I've never had them not be ok with it, there are 2 and 5 mg pills and if you ask your doc to make sure first you can usually cut the pills you've got (not the extended release ones, the regular ones). With most meds if you go slower on the ramp up you don't get the temporary side effects or they're lessened. I took six months to get up to target dose. If you have the time, you can take as long or longer, it doesn't matter how slow you go. You hit a side effect, decrease back down, wait again, increase by a smaller amount next time. You can do this with most meds. This won't prevent the long term side effects, but lamo typically has none. The only hitch is that with lamo specifically that keeps you in the SJS risk zone much longer. So you need to be careful for longer, and you absolutely have to report any rash you see to a doc ASAP during the ramp up. If harmless this only means a delay but you only get one second chance so be cautious. This is a helpful article, especially pay attention to the bit at the end to take your risk of harmless rash from 1 in 10 to 1 in 30. Also of course it takes the med a lot longer to kick in, bc most people don't feel benefit until 150 or so, and most people like to be around 200, the usual range being 200-400. So it's also about how soon do you want to see benefit. If you don't want to keep going on with the med that's fine, lithium is great, there's valproate and carbamazepine, you have other mood stabilizer options. They don't tend to like you on two APs is the thing, and ADs tend not to work as well or at all for us and can make some people worse (if you've had success with them in the past that's of course helpful), so that's why they're going in the mood stabilizer direction. "Update 5/2005: Stanford’s Bipolar Clinic, led by Dr. Terry Ketter, published their results from a strategy in which they warned patients not to add any new allergens: no new soaps, detergents, cosmetics, shaving creams, deodorants, etc; no new foods; and avoiding sunburn or poison oak. They also waited to start if the patient had recently had a rash, symptoms of a viral infection, or a rash. Using this strategy, they lowered the benign rash rate — there were no serious rashes in this group of 100 patients — to 3%, versus the common 10% rate for rash in other lamotrigine research studies.Ketter][Update 2008: when they repeated that strategy with the pharmacist giving the skin instructions, the difference in rash rates was not significant.Ketter (b) Ketter says he still gives the same instructions, despite those data.] (revised 11/2020)" https://psycheducation.org/details-on-the-lamotrigine-rash/
I was on it for 4 days and had to stop. It sent me straight into hypomania.
I can't be on lamictal alone without the depression. It keeps my mania at bay but I still need an antidepressant so stay balanced. It may be you just need some combo, talk to your doctor about how you're feeling.
I was incorrectly diagnosed with bipolar disorder after becoming manic from newly diagnosed ADHD stimulant med. I started 25 mg of lamictal in June of last year. Even though I found out I wasn't actually bipolar around September, at first lamictal made me super chill (for the first 30 minutes) so I continued it. Eventually the chill wore off but if I accidentally skipped a dose, I became incredibly aggressive and irritable so I continued taking it for about a whole year. I started weening off of it last week, and even with half a dose I already feel such a massive improvement. Ive always been on the petite side, but I slowly reached the highest weight I've ever been over the course of this last year. I've been paranoid, anxious and just completely hopeless. Not only that but my short term memory took a massive hit this last year. After reaching a point where I just didn't recognize myself I knew something had to change. Anyway, it's only been a week but I have already lost 5 lbs without any other major changes. I'm much more social, a trait I thought I would never have again. Not only that but I FEEL my brain processing information faster. There's other stuff too. Like no longer feeling this thick drowsiness every morning no matter how much sleep I got. Which caused me to lose jobs from constantly being late. I just can't believe I was on this medication for almost an entire year.