Anyone have any good experiences (or bad) with lamictal? Doc says that if mood gets stable enough on it that I might be able to lower the ap. I skeptical and so far the side effects suck almost as bad as latudas do. But would still take the lamictal over the atypical any day of the week.
I was on Lamictal for a while - for depression.
It was too stimulating for me and worsened my anxiety.
I could only tolerate a very low dose of 25mg.
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I’m on 50 mg now… Idk what it does so much… The lithium seems to help tho
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I was on it for a little bit, it felt like a placebo. But it works for some.
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Thanks for your replies. I’m going with this one blindly hoping that it will do the trick. If not there’s always new meds coming out to be hopeful for
I’m up to 200mg of lamictal, been on it since December. Its been really good to me so far, but I respond well to meds. It probably took 4-5months for my mood to lift, and its still evening out. Can’t say as I notice any side effects. Other than actually feeling things rather than being numbed out like I was on other ADs.
Thanks, I think I’m supposed to go to 150. At 125 now and got some brain fog but otherwise nothing I can’t handle. I appreciate your feedback though. Fell into a deep depression last year and needed a lift. And the Ssri’s make me pretty crazy.
Currently got bumped up to 200 mg and I can barely feel the difference, but I think it’s making me more active. I’ve been cleaning up more and going to martial arts classes, when before I had little energy. I don’t think it does much for the depression, but it seems to keep the mania at bay!
I was at 100 and then 150 mg for the past i dunno since like 2012?
Hey, thanks for your reply. It gives me more energy too I definitely feel like going out more than before it seems to have given me back some “courage” where as before I lacked it. Have you noticed it stopping any of your psychotic symptoms(if you have them)?
Are you able to take less anti psychotic medication since being on lamictal? There’s some confusion as to weather I am bipolar or schizoaffective. The doc is saying it could be bipolar but the hospital told me it was schizoaffective. I think I’m schizoaffective and the lamictal isn’t gonna help with that.
You are very welcome!
Lamictal prevents mania, which can cause insomnia, which leads me to full blown psychosis. As a schizo-affective, I think that mania is a major trigger for my sz. Even after the insomnia goes away, I’ll still hear voices and see things until the AP’s go into effect. The remaining positive symptoms I have (residual voices, paranoia, slight delusions) are not really helped by Lamictal, but if you take away the lamictal I’d be mood swinging everywhere, which would probably lead to a psychotic episode.
My pdocs wouldn’t chance it. I’ve been out of hospital since 2008 and they decided it was the 20 mg of Abilify keeping me stable, so they never reduced my dose until just recently when I demanded it be lowered to 15 mg. My pdoc gave me a hard time, but she lowered it. So, I don’t know. I do know that my pdoc raised my lamictal up by 50 mg shortly after decreasing my 20 mg of Abilify to 15 mg. Whether this was a coincidence or a deliberate move is unknown.
Good luck! Maybe Lamictal might help. If you’re schizo-affective that means schizophrenia + bipolar [bipolar = depression + mania], so the lamictal will work on the affective part of the diagnosis.
Thanks again HQuinn. I really appreciate the explanation. I received my diagnosis in 2001 but had a few years of rare stability off meds which I guess was when my illness was still forming. I’ve been in and out of the hospital over the last 4 years because I just refused to believe that I was sick. I’ve accepted it now as the psychosis has gotten worse but still it’s episodic and between episodes I have a mild thought disorder and some negative symptoms. I had a love hate relationship with geodon for many years and finally gave it up for latuda which I think is much better even though I’m carrying a few extra lbs on it.
I’ve heard good things about ability too but honestly like a lot of us hate the atypicals with a passion.
So I don’t know if the lamictal could be my great white hope. The doc is leading me to believe that it might. I’m glad to hear that it provides you stability. I honestly feel smarter and more focused on lamictal. Without it I’m like a hollow shell. I’m paying close attention to some of the new atypicals that are in development hoping that somehow someway they will come out with a better alternative. Best of luck to you I hope that you continue to have success on your journey
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I just upped the dose of lamictal to 150 where I’ll stay. I feel like ■■■■today and have no desire to go out of the house. I forced myself to go for a walk in the park and grab some coffee, otherwise I would have just layed in bed all day. I hope it gets better, I felt a definite benefit from the lamictal at 125 but as soon as I hit 150 I got side effects. I guess I’ll wait this out until I talk to my doctor again. I was told that I have bipolar disorder the other day by my new doctor. I’m not sure how to take that because I’ve had two major hospitals tell me that I was schizoaffective. I’ve had numerous psychotic breaks and I’m not a mood swingy kind of person just always depressed and anxious. If this doctor is right, than I would be able to get away with just lamictal and Prozac and no atypical. That’s what she told me anyway. At the very worst case scenario I would be put on lithium.
I don’t know though, in my heart I believe that I still am schizoaffective because of the level of disability that I’ve endured as a result of the illness. But my doctor swears that she’s seen bipolar people in the back wards of hospitals just as crazy as anybody else. I used to be able to handle my ■■■■back in the days when partying was a priority. Now I’m broken an alone on a Friday night. I guess bipolar disorder is the real deal if that’s what I got, and lamictal has some pretty nasty side effects too.
I say give the lamictal a chance. Lithium has far more side effects. Atypicals also double as mood stabilizers and are given to bipolars so there is no given you’ll be taken off the atypical, especially if you have boughts of depression with psychosis.
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i will, I think I’m gonna try to tough it out for a couple more weeks. I know its a good medication despite the difficulty thinking on it and the overall crummy feeling that I have now. Have you tried lithium? if so what was your experience like? At this point i think I’m looking for a break from atypicals but I’m gonna listen to the doctor on that.
I’m on lamictal with depakote which is supposed to cause a reaction but my doctor recommended it for depression. So far I only feel like my depression (that I didn’t think
I had in the first place) has worsened. Especially at night. I think on Sunday I start taking lamictal every day instead of every other day so we’ll see how that goes.
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Ive never heard of that combination but it sounds similar to the one my doc had anted to put me on lamictal and lithium. I know that i have depression and the doctor said that lamictal would give me some “backbone” haha i was pretty beat up after my last episode. Anyway the lamictal has done that pretty well but the downside is i don’t feel right, i can’t remember stuff and my mood is flat. I feel a little weird (weirder than i was before)… I really noticed a difference when i hit 50 mg and the sweet spot for me was 125 mg. I have been told that the therapeutic dose of lamictal starts at 150mg where I’m at now and plan on staying.
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I’m only on 25mg every other day. I think my doctor said she’d up the dose at my next appointment. She also said she liked the combination but I’m not so sure I do.
well hang in there, this isn’t my first experience with medication Ive been on and off the merry-go-round for about 15 years. I have been on depakote I thought it worked great but I’m supersensitive to weight gain and depakote packed it on me. Lamictal has by far the least side effects but by no means is it side effect free, its a major adjustment to get used to In my opinion. But yea the combination of the two sounds like it might be tough on cognition and memory.
Whats your diagnosis are you schizoaffective bipolar type? I have been diagnosed as schizoaffective depressed type but recently started seeing a doctor that diagnosed me as having bipolar 1. Either way it doesn’t make it suck any less, after 15 years Im still getting used to the idea that I may need to be on multiple medications for my condition. Thats a tough pill to swallow 
Thanks. Yeah I’m schizoaffective bipolar type. But I was recently in the hospital where it was paranoid schizophrenia. It gets frustrating to me with all the medication changes and diagnoses. I just want to be ok, whatever that means.
I know what you mean, me too. Im starting to get discouraged and shut out the world. I got sick at 24 and like a lot of people was pretty normal and high functioning before that. The meds take a toll on you like the illness does, I just want to feel normal or natural again. I don’t give hospitals a lot of credibility when it comes to a diagnosis. They only see you at your worst and thats not the way you will always be. Gotta keep hope alive, I really feel like they will have better medicines for this one day that will work entirely different than the ones we have now. Imagine pharmacy shelves overstocked with atypicals and mood stabilizers that no longer sell and us former patients sitting around talking about the old days when meds made you fat and lazy.
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