LAMICTAL Reviews (LAMOTRIGINE)Average Rating: 3.4 (1917 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare LAMICTAL with similar:
Type: Rx Drug
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Results are sorted by Gender with females listed first (reviews with no gender reported listed before females). Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.) Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 |
More on LAMICTAL: Reviews Summary | Drug Safety Information
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR LAMICTAL | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 2 | Bipolar II | Headaches at dose changes, muscle weakness, extreme fatigue through the entire day, insomnia, confusion, loss of concentration, memory loss | It did finally start lifting my depression at 200 mg but the side effects were not worth it. | F | 25 | 5 months | 4/19/2007 | 2 | Bipolar II | Double vision, dizzy, vivid dreams. Nausea. | taking 200 bid. not sure if this is helping. been on it for several months increasing dose. Having horrible side effects. not sure how much it is really helping me. | F | 33 | 4 months | 12/30/2004 | 2 | bipolar | I've just started on Lamictal but am experiencing such irritability I can't stand it - I'm also very tired. Can anyone offer help? Does it go away. I've had similar experiences with Trilptal and even worse irritability with Topomax. Verapimil didn't work. I feel like I'm out of options because depakote and lithium aren't a possibility. | F | 35 | 3 days | 1/12/2005 | 2 | bipolar 1 | INSOMNIA soo bad, headaches, i cant concentrate or memorize stuff (like for school) vivid dreams/nightmares, hair loss | I tirrated up pretty slow to minimize side effects, my moods have been no different, my mental state has not been affected at all by this, i feel the same as if i were taking nothing. i could go up a little more with the dosage but im high enough where i should feel somthing if it was going to work for me. | F | 20 | 4 months | 10/2/2006 | 2 | bipolar II - depression | Immediately after starting I began to feel an irritated/sunburn sensation in my genital region and swollen groin lymph nodes, SEVERE night sweats, memory loss (my brain feels like swiss cheese), irritability, backache, tingly limbs, dissociation from limbs, vivid dreams, possible auditory & somatic hallucination just after increasing from 75mg to 100mg. | UPDATE - RASH: I started getting a rash on my elbows about a month after increasing the dose to 100mg. The rash started going away immediately after I stopped taking it and now I'm realizing the other side effects I was having that I did not attribute to the drug. Boyfriend said I seemed distant and irrational, I am not even sure if it was stabilizing my moods. I feel better now that I'm on just 30mg of Cymbalta (anti-depressant). Feel free to email me if you would like to chat. | F | 32 | 3 months | 4/6/2005 | 2 | Bipolar II, rapid cycling | dizziness, rash, difficulty concentrating, headache | Didn't help the mania at all. Didn't help the migraines. Helped the depression a bit but not as much as many other meds. The rash is awful. Now I'm trying to figure out how quickly I can quit taking it. Any ideas? Links to web sites would be helpful. | F | 17 | 2.5 months | 9/22/2004 | 2 | Mood swings and anger problem | Itchiness | I've only been taking it for 3 days, so far all I have felt is itchiness all over my back and arms. I'm scared to continue taking it because of all the things I have read on it, especially since I have not been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. But I'm also scared to stop it because my mood swings and anger problem are affecting my relationship and work. Any advice that someone that has taken it can offer me would be greatly appreciated. | F | 26 | 3 days | 12/23/2007 | 2 | Bipolar II | Acne. Flat affect. Itchy skins upon raising dose, but that went away. | After almost two months on the meds I have little side effects. The bad skin and flat affect have been what's remained. I do not feel like it is helping my mood enough to be worth taking. | F | 27 | 2 months | 12/25/2007 | 2 | Acute Depression/PMS | I am so greatful for all your posts! I have been having a lot of the same side effects. I feel no motivation, tired all the time, loss of any personality, just really "Blah". | As others have stated, it did seem to work at first. Now i am up to 100mg and i am starting to feel like i am going backwards in my treatment. I am also on 150mg of Zoloft. We have tried several anti-depressents that seem to work at for awhile and then stops. I really think that i need to see my OB/GYN and look into the PMS more. Thanks again for all the comments - now i dont feel so crazy! | F | 33 | 2 months | 12/17/2007 | 2 | Bipolar 1 | WEIGHT GAIN!! 15lbs in a few months. Confusion, dizziness, uncoordinated, blurred vision, nausea, loss of words. | Went on this to get off Lithium. Lithium gave me Diabetes Insipidus. This is just as bad. I'm a professor and at this point I couldn't pass my own classes. I can't remember things, lost words mid-sentence, get dizzy spells day & in my sleep. Dr. made me stop driving, I'm getting lost and can't concentrate. I've started seeing a neurologist thinking something was WRONG with my brain! The weight gain is driving me nuts. I thought I was crazy when I read the drug company information, they insist weight gain is not a side effect. Now I know I'm not nuts after reading these reviews. I'm getting off the stuff as quick as I can. | F | 48 | 3 days | 12/29/2007 | 2 | Bipolar | I've experienced flu like symptoms, tremors, dizzyness, clumsyness. The main one being and times I feel lost, like I'm not in touch with reality. I'll do something then 5 minutes later, forgot what I did. | I havn't been taking Lamictal long enough to get any effect of it but have stopped taking it, by doctors orders, due to the side effects, and their effects on my daily life. | F | 22 | 7 days | 12/3/2007 | 2 | Anxiety, PTSD, Mood swings | Worse anxiety, suicidal thoughts, weight loss, extreme mood swings, no sex drive, crying for no reason. Lack of motivation. | I hate this medication. It is horrible. Major mood swings, Very Manic one day and depressed the next.I feel as though I am going crazy, Fuzzy head, dizzy, loss for words. Racing thoughts, can't articulate my thoughts. I feel like I am on a good one times 10. I feel worse than before I started taking it. | F | 39 | 2 weeks | 12/13/2007 | 2 | bipolar, gen anxiety disorder | Extreme irratibility over the smallest things. Small bumps on my face (seem to be going away now). Rapid mood swings from calmness to anger to depression & suicidal thoughts. | I was & still am on Wellbutrin. I saw a prior post that also described extreme irritablity and they too were on Wellbutrin. I'm normally a pretty laid-back person who really tries to keep things in perspective. This totally floored me, but I think this is NOT a common side effect after doing some research. | F | 34 | 30 days | 11/19/2007 | 2 | Bi polar | Insomnia, extreme dry mouth, slurred speech, lack of concentration or inability to concentrate when others were talking, trouble writing. Possible hair loss when I saw the comments of others and realized lots of my hair fell out after I washed it. | The insomnia was the worst. Had difficulty falling to sleep if I fell asleep at all. If I did fall asleep, woke up several times during the night. The slurred speech might have been caused from being on lamictal, geodon, clonzapam, zyprexa and zoloft at the same time. | F | 52 | 3 months | 11/18/2007 | 2 | BiPolar 2 | Started out at 100 which seemed to help with severe depression after a total nervous breakdown in which I stayed in bed for a month, stopped eating, lost 25 lbs and would cry uncontrollably when I was awake. MD put me on 100 and I stopped crying constantly and having intense racing thoughts and started functioning fairly normally. Psychiatrist MD upped dosage to 300 and it totally increased my depression. I am able to function 8 hours a day (I work from home), but crying daily and hysterically for an hour. I told him that I sincerely felt his original diagnosis of BP was incorrect and that I suffer from severe depression without the mania associated with BP, so he reduced me to 100 and added Wellbutrin. With Lamictal, I would sleep well, but wake up every morning feeling totally groggy, not well-rested and would take at least an hour to be able to start functioning. Lamictal made me hyper-sensitive and hyper-emotional. | I think Lamictal is miraculous if you're diagnosed correctly with BP. I think my doctor made a quick diagnosis because of my complete breakdown, without inquiring about possible manic episodes, which I never experienced. | F | 61 | 3 months | 4/2/2008 | 2 | bipolar II - Depression | Agitation, dizziness, low concentration....It is a relief to see I am not the only one. | I was titrated at a slow rate; when I got to 100mg I was OK; but my doctor felt we should increase to 150mg. I'm calling her tomorrow because I feel like I am going insane. I can't concentrate. I'll put a piece of paper down in front of me; then I'll spend 15/20 minutes looking for it, when it is actually right in front of me. Not only that I am so agitated, I feel like I just want to scream; it is very stressful and frustrating....I really want off of this drug. As far as controlling my mood swings I think that they have gotten worse...... | F | 50 | 4 months | 3/6/2008 | 2 | Bipolar type 2 | I just basically went insane... I don't know how else to put it! I became very tense and paranoid, and I would bite anyone's head off who said something towards me! I didn't even feel like I was the one saying what was coming out of my mouth. I had also become extremely emotional about little things... | I would try something different if you have type 2 . . . | F | 17 | 2 weeks | 1/17/2008 | 2 | bipolar II/mainly depression | I became increasingly angry an irrational. I thought about suicide constantly which was not a problem before the lamictal. One night I raged at my husband and threw things. Socially, I behaved as if I had Borderline Personality Disorder and was convinced for a while that I did have it. When I was eventually hospitalized for depression I was paranoid and confrontational until the Dr took me off of it. Memory loss was severe. | As with other meds, my doctors insisted that Lamictal could not cause these side effects. I was not taken off of it until a friend and my husband testified to my dramatic personality change. My friend even had it marked on his calendar. This was the worst summer I have ever had. It seems like medicines will sometimes make me worse and the doctor will decide that what I need is more of it. I am glad that it works for so many people, but be careful. | F | 35 | 2 months | 2/23/2008 | 2 | BiPolar II (severe PMS) | INSOMNIA & ANXIETY, sore throat/swollen glands, mouth sores, fatigue, inability to articulate, lack of motivation or direction, inability to preform simple daily tasks, bad taste in mouth and metalic odor (not sure if that's real or imagined), feeling of floating, blurred vision, dry puffy eyes (causing sinus presure & headaches), body aches, joint pain, tense muscles and cramping in back and shoulders, feeling like I've lost my mind! | The side effects are far too consuming and debilitating to describe any positive effects of this medication. I've tried Lexapro, Zoloft, Prozac, and now Lamictal, for my severe PMS. This has been (by far) the worst medicine, for me, followed by Lexapro. Without medication, I have two good weeks per month, followed by two bad weeks. The bad weeks include insomnia, headaches, mood swings, racing mind, fatigue and lack of motivation, all of which causes me to feel depressed during that time. I feel like I spend my 'two good weeks' constantly trying to make up for what I don't do in my 'two bad weeks'. Friends and family hate that I 'go into hiding' for ten days a month and have encouraged me to try medication. It's been an honest effort, but I choose to just have my 'bad weeks', knowing that they go away and there will be good times ahead. This medicine was really really scary for me, making me thankful for the life I had before taking it, and looking very forward to a time when i | F | 33 | 30 days | 3/18/2008 | 2 | Bipolar II more depression | Confusion, night sweats,short term memory loss, blurry vision, achy, headaches, cannot complete a senctence without putting two words together, so I remind myself of the way Scooby-Doo (cartoon dog) talks. | I started out at 150 mg was doing great, mild side effects and after almost two years, I am now down to 50 mg. | F | 40 | 2 years | 3/7/2008 |