Lamictal Side Effects

HI!

I have been on Lamictal for approx. 1 1/2 years.

My dose has been 200mg at bedtime and 100 mg in the morning.
My pdoc wants me to increase my Lamictal to 200mg twice a day.

I have tried this increase repeatedly over the past year. When I raise it the extra 100 mg, I feel very tired and , often, quite dizzy or off-balance.

The trouble is: Pdoc does not believe that Lamictal makes anyone sleepy and/or dizzy. I beg to differ. I know there are people who have these types of side-effects.

I have simply told her that I have had these side-effects repeatedly, with each of several trials to increase my med. In order to keep her happy, I am trying to increase it just 50 mg in the morning, instead of 100mg.

Do you feel tired and/or dizzy, light headed when taking higher doses of Lamictal?

Thanks for your input!!!

I wonder why pdocs deny patient's reports of med side effects?

I take 400mg per day. I don't think it causes me to be tired (although it's hard to tell which med does). Dizzy and off balance? Definitely. Like, off balance to a point at which I'm afraid of falling.

Lamictal made me feel flat and zombie like, for that reason I quit it. Don't remember it making me dizzy or tired. I think my dose was 400 at night, but don't quote me on the dose it's been a long time since I took it.

Hi WC,

I'm sorry to hear your pdoc isn't being receptive.

When I was on 300mg once a day I HAD to take it at night because it made me so dizzy and foggy. I took it for a while in the mornings but I could hardly function. Moving it to the night made a huge difference for me. So for sure there's something to it making you dizzy and sleepy.

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this WC but I suggest you get your liver function tested about once per year. I had to stop taking lamictal because it was damaging my liver and only found out about a year after the damage started when I was showing symptoms.

It's been maybe 10 years or more since I took 300 mg Lamictal, the highest dose I think I took. I never recall fatigue. In fact, it made me hypomanic, then full manic (with psychosis). I was also on Abilify at the time. I do recall sweating a lot, but believe that was related to the manic symptoms.

The main side effect I had when on 300 mg Lamictal was mild cognitive issues (memory issues). They were likely not that bad, though. I also had some anxiety issues.

A quick google search reveals dizziness and drowsiness to be pretty commonly reported symptoms. Hard to believe a pdoc hasn’t heard of those issues. From what I have read, it’s pretty common with all the epileptic drugs.

thank you and please be careful!

Well, flat and zombie like ? The med has to go!
thanks!

Hi Scooter! Glad to hear from you. I think of you daily, hoping things are looking up for you.

yes, my liver is tested at least 2 x per year.
thanks so much for sharing your experiences.
Much love to you and Your Family!!!

Thank you, BirdDancer!:

You see, she said patients would say this! She said bipolar people will say the med either makes them depressed or gets them high!!!
She says that is what the box says to doctors, patients will claim this med is causing their mood (sleepy, dizzy, hypo, etc..).

Much Love

Hi pacman,

What a simple way to get some idea on side-effects.
Thank you!

When I took 400mg of Lamictal in the morning, it gave me double vision and made me wobbly/clumsy. That's how I fell down 13 steps of stairs and f_cked up my neck, back, arm, and hand.

this is my thumb/arm after 3-4 weeks of healing:
https://i.imgur.com/Qt2oHPL.jpg

I don't have any earlier pics of it, but it was F_CKED UP.

Hey there, Blue!

Wow! Looks painful!

So, after a couple of trials, pdoc was fine with keeping the dose lower.

Last week, she gets on the topic again, saying, I don't want you to think I don't believe you (dizziness, sleepiness) but...NOBODY gets tired or dizzy from Lamictal! I told her I know differently.

her response was: On the literature for pdocs, it says patients will go hypo and will blame Lamictal. Same with depression and increased sleepiness. Symptoms never caused by Lamictal.

I told her I'd be fair and start a thread here to see what people share. Her response? they are going to do the same thing! They are going to blame Lamictal when it is their mood, not Lamictal.

A mood causes dizziness?

Sometimes...she is impossible.

My rheumy says: Anyone can have any side-effect at any time. End of story.

thanks, Blue and All!

Yeah, it hurt a lot... falling down all those stairs.

There are some meds like abilify that make people extremely sedated but also make others manic and insomniacs. Any med can cause any side effect, as far as I'm concerned. Even if the symptom you're experiencing isn't listed as a "known" or "common" side effect, it can still happen as a side effect. After all, drugs are only tested on a small -- and very focused -- subpopulation of people during clinical trials. So, it's impossible to capture every possible side effect when you're not testing it on a ton of people. Even 1000 people in a clinical trial isn't that much in the grand scheme of things, especially since you know that 50% of those people will be receiving a placebo rather than the med itself. How is 500 people fully representative of the tens of thousands of people who take the med? It's not.

Some doctors need to use common sense.

Yikes !!!!!!! Oh I can’t imagine the pain

Well Ms Harvard is wrong once again I so wish Pdocs had to sample there own medicine before trying to shove it down our throats

Ummmmm years ago my Pdoc wanted to bump me up to 300mg .. 150 twice a day... I said Nope I ain’t taking it twice a day, I’ll take it at bedtime. He ordered Lamictal 300mg XR ... I have never had a problem with Lamictal thankfully ... but maybe she would consider writing you a week or so worth of a reasonable mg amount you can agree on and see if you tolerate that better ?? Just a thought

Thanks! We did consider XR; however, if I cannot tolerate the increase from 300mg to 400mg, it makes sense to me to attempt this in 50mg increments than to accelerate the titration by utilizing 400XL.


I'm not sure of why people get hung up on the fact that their own pdoc is affiliated with Harvard. Nor do I understand why others take issue with anyone's pdoc who may have a Harvard affiliation.

My pdoc definitely does not feel she is special, quite the opposite, She is quite humble-- and her colleagues often refer to her as having "a big personality without the ego."

Why the "Harvard Hang -Up" expressed often on this site? Both the "bragging" and the "jabs" seem unnecessary to me and I wonder why this is an issue at all?

You make some excellent points on both fronts, WC, as usual, and I freely admit to having been guilty of once mentioning where my pdoc trained (I also admit to having done some of my own training there as well, which I don't believe I have ever mentiond before, but full disclosure, FWIW).

That said, I have thought a lot about why people, patients, authors, physicians and psychologists, etc., sometimes seem hung up on the H-word in this milieu and in particular, with this specific specialty. I can tell you, having been in two other major specialties at other schools, that you do not really hear people refer to that Boston institution with other specialties the way you do with psychiatry. Overalll hospital quality, you often hear Mayo Clinic. Peds Surgery--CHOP in Philly. Cancer, often MD Anderson, maybe Sloan Kettering. So on. Obviously, there are lots and lots of other terrific places, though. Tons of them, all over the place. The University of Iowa, for example has super-elite ENT and Ortho programs and has forever. Everyone who knows these fileds knows this.

When it comes to psychiatry, though the Harvard program--the entire, massive, spread-out thing--has really been the clear market leader for decades. By a long shot. It has kind of been in its own league, when you just look at overall contribution to specialty over time. I think that impact has really been felt over time and I certainly do agree that people have gotten hung up on it.

Good for you for pointing this out.

I honestly don’t get it either ... either a Pdoc is good or bad , regardless of there schooling.

For instance my Pdoc?? He got his degree in internal medicine.. he had his own practice a few years in this small town ( keep in mind he’s mid 60’s now) well he was seeing patients left and right needing psych help and it was virtually impossible to find in this town 35 years ago.. so he handed his practice over to another Doctor and he went and studied for over a year about psych illness and medications.

He took a job at the mental health clinic and he is brilliant with psych meds and working to find the best treatment for each patient.

He did not change him self to “ psychiatrist “ but he knows the ins and outs of every bloody psych Med out there , he never had tried to tell me a side effect isn’t possible. If I have one .., he says okay let’s figure out something else

I think Pdocs are either great, good , passable or lousy regardless of where they studied.

Anyway just my opinion and lord knows I have tons of them LOL

I want to thank you for expressing your personal opinion.
I'd like to get back to my point and then cite some facts.

I was specifically referring to the fact that I often see members who have Harvard-Affiliated pdocs assert this in their comments as though this validates the member's opinion and/or validates the treatment protocol of their very special pdoc, as in, there cannot be a better medical opinion and/or treatment.

I think it's quite clear that anyone who says or writes "my Harvard pdoc"....
is doing so to assert the "belief" that his/her pdoc is "superior."

Members don't assert "my pdoc at my rural town's hospital"...

What is the purpose for a member to preface their comment with "my Harvard pdoc"...? I think this is to imply that s/he is receiving superior care/treatment, over and above anyone receiving care from a non-Harvard pdoc.

I live in an area where I am exposed to a huge number of physicians from both Harvard and Duke. My very best, most intelligent and most patient-friendly physicians are affiliated with neither.

In response to bpcyclists personal opinion, I'd like to bring some balance into this discussion by moving away from personal opinions by presenting some very important facts.

As people boast of Harvard doctors, it's critical to keep in mind: "Harvard-Affiliated" means different things to different people. Not everyone is impressed, for a variety of reasons. Not all goes well at Harvard. Harvard and "Outstanding" Harvard-Affiliated psychiatrists/researchers have been involved in the biggest scandal, thus far in history, involving Psychiatric Pediatric research and care.

From our own DocJohn:

J&J, Biederman Worked Toward Promotion of Pediatric Bipolar

Others:

Joseph Biederman - The New York Times
Please note a few articles mention the highly-esteemed Harvard psychiatrist Biederman (above link)

Harvard Psychiatrists Disciplined for Conflicts of Interest - Alliance for Human Research Protection

This was a HUGE scandal. Psychiatrists were at Harvard. The Pediatric Center funded by an affiliated drug company was constructed at Harvard.

Not only was there disregard for the Hippocratic Oath and professional ethics, there was deception and fraud.

IF YOU CARE ABOUT PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH DONE ON CHILDREN, look into this scandal (at Harvard).

It's inaccurate to make blanket statements about any Medical School Affiliation. There is a gray area at every institution.

I am simply saying I agree with Christina and with my original point, many great doctors may be Harvard affiliated and just as many are affiliated elsewhere. To some, especially those whose children were used for bogus studies and/or treated at Harvard with protocols at that time, the references to "Harvard-Affiliated "does not elicit any positive feelings/memories.

Again, Harvard-Affiliated in no way means "superior."

I am interested in members feeling as though their pdocs and their treatment are as worthy as anyone else's. Everyone deserves validation.

Thank you for reading.