Lamictal / Lamotrigine Experiences

Please post your Lamictal (Lamotrigine) experiences here, positive or negative.

I am currently on Lamictal, 200mg. I was at 400mg at one point, but it made me feel too "foggy" -- i.e., I couldn't concentrate well and my short-term memory was rather bad.

I'm not sure it helps very much with stabilizing my mood because I still get ups and downs with it, BUT it has definitely has gotten rid of my severe anger issues, so I continue to take it for that reason alone. (Prior to lamictal, I would be physically violent. I destroyed expensive things like laptops, phones, etc.. I also kicked holes through two doors and dented a fridge with my foot. Then I physically hit my dad and shoved him sometimes. Very violent.)

No side effects from Lamictal. Maybe a little sedation, but nothing that bad. I get 9-10 hours a night instead of my normal 7-8 when I'm off meds entirely.

I have been on the small dose of 100 mg generic Lamictal for about eight years. It is activating for me, working more as an antidepressant, than moodstabilizer. I do appreciate Lamictal for its antidepressant qualities. It got me out of a year long depression eight years ago. I must, however, take only this small dose and other bipolar medications (especially an antipsychotic) to prevent possible mania. At 100 mg, I don't have any side effects. Lamictal is a better choice for me as an "antidepressant" since actual antidepressants are extremely destabilizing for me. Another medication I take that has proven helpful at curbing and preventing depression, is Seroquel XR. Seroquel XR is my super multi purpose medication, and is really the only one that is manipulated in my cocktail, regardless of episode type. However, Seroquel XR is not activating. It works on my depression in a different way than Lamictal. They complement each other.

Maybe 11 years ago, I took as much as 300 mg Lamictal with Abilify. At first, my mood was beautiful, but I gradually became severely manic with psychosis and hospitalized. At 300 mg, I recall some minor memory issues. Also, I sweated a lot, but that may have been a result of hypomania and mania. They took me off the Lamictal/Abilify combo during the referenced hospitalization.

I guess I could go off Lamictal, but my psychiatrist and I see no reason. It only does good. Plus, if I was off and a doctor wanted to start it again, many here know you have to start again from 25 mg and work up slowly because of the SJS rash risk.

Been on lamictal many times over the years. Flatten outs my moods and at times that's good. Helps with mixed moods. I don't like the flatness over a long period of time after about a yr of stability I tend to go off it. I'm usually on about 300 mg.

Lamictal worked great! My brain was evened out and it felt wonderful. However, I was driving one day and felt funny. I looked at my face in the mirror after pulling over and it was a deep purple! My pdoc actually wrote up a report on it. I didnt think to take photos so she didnt have any to put with report.

Lamictal worked well for me. I suffer mostly from depression and had hypomania as a result of medications and Lamictal evened things out most of the time.

I still had depression once in a while but my overall thinking was not as my thinking when I'm depressed. I was able to do a lot while I was on it.

After about 3 years on it I started experiencing severe stomach area pains. The pain would come in waves lasting about 12 hours and it came up every few weeks.

After a year of that, weight loss of almost 20% of my body weight, and increase in severity of pain, I decided it needed to be checked out.

After lots of tests it was found that Lamictal was damaging my liver. They considered it an allergic reaction. I had to stop it within 3 weeks from a 300mg dose.

I became really dizzy all the time but somehow I managed.

I became really depressed a few months later and have been that way since then (2 years). But the good news is that I'm finally starting to weight again after losing so much and my liver tests are almost normal.

If you're on Lamictal, ask your doctor to do a liver function test once a year, it's a blood test. Liver damage is a known side effect of Lamictal.

Lamictal (300mg) has helped me to not feel nearly as depressed as I was feeling when I started taking it. It also might make a dent in that severe, ruminating, bipolar disorder anxiety that plagues me.


So I give Lamictal a thumbs up, except that I do feel fairly "flat" on it. I feel resentful that my positive and oftentimes glorious hypomanic self has been stolen. Were it not for the depression I know I'd slam down into I would toss my bottle of Lamictal into the river.

It’s a seizure medication that they found works well for many people with Bipolar, for the depressive end, it does nothing for the manic side.

It by far was the only Med I have ever taken that I had zero side effects on.

I was in a clinical trial for lamotrigine. I was first put on the placebo (it was obvious as I got so much worse I only stayed out of IP by lying) then in a later phase of the trial was put on it as a known med. It worked for me at a high dose but I vomited every day and eventually we stopped it. I think I was on it about a year.

I tried it again later when it was more obvious that I was going to have a lot of trouble finding meds that worked. This time it worked almost immediately and I felt better than I had in a long time. I passed the highest risk period for the rash and was still doing great. Two weeks later I developed the rash on my face, lips, right by my eye, and down onto my neck. No more lamotrigine for me.

Unfortunately, this drug didn’t work for me. It was about as helpful as a placebo. I just kept getting more and more manic on it. The 6wks on it went in a blur of manic euphoria. I was hospitalised in the psych hospital, taken off Lamactil and put on Lithium. I remember that going to hospital was one big party until the Lithium kicked in.
Main side effects: none at all. This drug had no impact on me, good or bad.

lamictal is great for me im on 400 and helps mostly w depression because I got manic on it even at this dose.

I want to ask my doctor about taking Lamictal at my upcoming appointment. I have had to taper down on Geodon b/c it gave me terrible akasthesia and trouble breathing after being on it for a year. Since I'm afraid to try another antipsychotic I want to try Lamictal. My only concern is that when I took it several years ago it caused extreme hair loss. It was helping my mood but I had to stop it b/c the hair loss was so extreme. I'm hoping I get lucky and don't get this side effect again, or I'm willing to take supplements/vitamins that will keep it from getting too bad...Or maybe my doctor will suggest another mood stabilizer. I just thought Lamictal can be so good for BP II (I'm "on the bipolar spectrum" but I'm definitely closer to BP II; I have depressive episodes, some of which have been severe, and sometimes get hypomanic.

I was on lamictal for a little while. I had some side effects from it I guess it was more like an allergic reaction. It made my face swell up. My pdoc said it was too bad because it works really well to lift depression.

Just started this 6 weeks ago and it has lifted my depression that was sticking around despite lithium and abilify.

My pdoc said that if you start it when you're manic it does nothing, but that if you start it when you're depressed it can lift the depression and then help prevent mania.

I was on it for two years at about 400 mg, then got Stevens Johnson Syndrome and of course had to stop it. The funny thing was, in retrospect, after d/c'ing the lamictal, I really don't think it was doing a thing for me. I think the lithium was doing all the heavy lifting (as it continues to do).

Lamictal was prescribed to me and it was the only thing I was on at the time-


I have shared this with another psychiatrist and they still gave me the bipolar label with other things.

Though I just recently shared this *of what I could * with a lcsw therapist, but when I mentioned it didn't help, I was told promptly if lamictal didn't help me I was never bipolar.... idk maybe I'm not -lets face it, I question the opinion too .. but at the same time more than one psychiatrist disagree with questioning it.

I some what wanted to ask others that are sure they are bipolar what they thought.. perhaps I already have.. but also know no one is a professional .. I just get confused.

But seeing so many be helped by it, and some with flatten moods, and then me- I just dunno...
Ps I am trying my journey again on this... and still wish there were more clear cut answers and tools to diagnose.

"A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any market." Charles Lamb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da7StUzVh3s

I started taking it two weeks ago and am supposed to increase from 25 to 50 mg tomorrow. I'm thinking about stopping it b/c even at this low dose I feel pretty flat, too. I usually take antidepressants with antipsychotics and don't feel flat at all, so I may ask my doctor about switching up my antidepressant or antipsychotic soon if I discontinue Lamictal. I have mainly depression but occasionally have some hypomanic irritability (not often, though).

I like the flat feeling. But I've only been on it for 2 months.