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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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Posted by fiftylager on September 10, 2006, at 14:33:30
Hi everyone. I've been on lamotrigine for about 4 months now. At first I was very happy on it. Too happy, I suspect I was hypomanic and it was going to get me in trouble. Also, I was still having problems with anxiety. At about 150mg I started to notice the depression kicking back in.
I'm at 200mg now and I think I'm cycling. I will go a few good days and a few days feeling very depressed. I still have some anxiety but not near so severe. I am especially bad a few days before menstruation and a week after (sorry guys). I think this may be because BC pills decrease the level of lamotrigine in your blood but when I take the sugar pills it increases the lamotrigine in my blood.
I don't know what to think. I haven't had any more mixed episodes thank god. But I worry I'll get one and the depression sucks. I'm scared of adding on meds and don't even know what the pdoc would try. And the best is I've never seen my pdoc since being diagnosed. i live in a remote area in Canada and he only flies in once every few months, so I'm going through my gp for prescription renewals and such.
Has anyone else been depressed on lamotrigine like this? I'm feeling lost and confused about this. Thanks for any input.
Crissi
Posted by Phillipa on September 10, 2006, at 15:13:28
In reply to Don't know if lamotrigine/lamictal is helping, posted by fiftylager on September 10, 2006, at 14:33:30
Thought it was an antidepressant at l50 or 200mg? Love Phillipa
Posted by psychobot5000 on September 10, 2006, at 21:55:14
In reply to Don't know if lamotrigine/lamictal is helping, posted by fiftylager on September 10, 2006, at 14:33:30
Hi,
Never went above 50mg, myself, but for me Lamotrigine upped my mood quite a lot in the first day or two, then quickly let it slip back to baseline, then depressed it further. It was very disappointing.
I have heard many people report good results, typically around 100-250 mg doses, on Lamotrigine. But I have also heard of people who mostly got a benefit only when escalating the dose. I got further benefit by escalating to 50mg, but then, again, my mood went back down--of course, for me the effect was very quick and very recognizable. From what I hear, it definitely takes longer for some, and some others get sustained benefit.
I also had some cognitive slowing on this med.
Hope it works out for you--sorry you live in such a remote area!
P-bot
This is the end of the thread.
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