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 |
| 5 | Bipolar, PTSD, A.D.D | Main side-effect is increased tiredness. Med seems weight neutral or I may have lost a few. No rash this time. I have tried to get back on this med for awhile but each time I have gotten rash. So far so good. this time. | Lamictal is the only mood stabilizer that I can tolerate well. It is the only one that seems to help with depression and my tendency to dissociate. Sometimes I wonder if I have petit mal seizures. Whatever, the mind is complex and this med has settled things down to the point of being able to feel an on-going sense of self. | M | 48 | 7 weeks 150 1X day | 3/9/2012 | 5 | Bipolar | No noticable side effect | This medication was the first that significantly reduced the amount of mood swing. I was rapid cycling so this really helped the continuity of my life. Gave me a stable base to try to rebuild marriage. I'm at a high dosage so it's expensive (but worth it). I still get some physical symptoms of highs/lows but they are manageable. I recommend this highly for mood stabilization. Doesn't do much for my GAD. | M | 45 | 4 years 300 2X day | 3/17/2012 | 5 | bipolar type 2 (mostly depression) | insomnia (mild). minor itching | Only 2 weeks on this and so far it's been amazing. I know its very early days but its as if I have been released from a prison sentence. The floor has come up and the ceiling has come down and I am much more comfortable with this new space. I'm not so damn emotional but oddly enough I am more empathic and supportive to others. Best thing is the self hatred has gone. I am sorry that others have done not so well on this and I hope you find something that works. Best wishes! V | M | 45 | 14 days 25 1X day | 12/9/2012 | 5 | Bipolar 2 depress, racing thoughts | Itchiness on face and neck every time I titrate up; benign rash which I fixed by switching to electric shave instead of wet shave. | I escalated EXTREMELY slowly as I knew this had the power to save me and I didn't want to f up my chances with getting the rash. Cured my depression. Generics are cheap where I come from (God Bless India!) Suggest making trips here and importing supply (until expiration date) back into US. Sells as Lametec here. | M | 30 | 8 months | 3/31/2006 | 5 | Epilepsy | Occasionally after drinking larger amounts of caffeine or getting little sleep the effects of the drug are weakened, but I suppose that's natural. Have had some nervous ticks/twitches in recent years, but I'm not sure if that began after taking lamictal or before. At times it's hard to concentrate. Acne was quite exacerbated when I began the drug and lasted for a year or two, but it has subsided considerably since then. | I was diagnosed with Grey Matter Displacia also in April 2001. I started taking tegretol and carbotrol and they were horrible for me. I started taking lamictal after just a few weeks and experienced a great deal of short term memory loss, but that very well could have been the tegretol. Overall I am very pleased with the drug. As long as I take care of myself (get enough sleep and don't drink too much caffeine, and I never have drunk alcohol) I basically do fine. I take 150mg/2xd. | M | 22 | 5 years | 1/25/2006 | 5 | Bipolar II | A little worse acne, I think I had some memory loss for the first few months, but seem better now. (Memory is hard to self-access.) 400 mg gave me BAD itching (I would take 200 mg before bed and itch miserably an hour later.) 300 mg has few side effects now. | This drug is amazing! I started feeling better around 125mg. The only bad thing is that the effectiveness would "wear off" after a week or so at each higher level. Finally, 300 mg seems to do a good job consistently for me. (I have been at 300 for 6 months.) Lamictal seems to help mostly with my lowest-lows and my agitation. I am taking Provigil as needed to help a bit with the remaining depression. | M | 44 | 9 months | 9/23/2005 | 5 | seizures | acne, tired, insomnia, vivid nightmares, ataxia, depression | lamictal is my fifth medication, haven't had a seizure for a year. The most annoying side effects are the insomnia and nightmares which seem to be worse on lamictal than my previous prescriptions (tegretol, dilantin, trileptal, keppra). acne has gone down, hopefully i can get more than three hours of sleep a night. Any suggestions? | M | 19 | 8 months | 4/11/2006 | 5 | Bipolar II | No Side Effects | This medication gave me my life back! I have tried every psych med (literally) and this is the one for me. It can pull me out of a depression within days. I can't recommend this drug enough. | M | 38 | 6 years | 2/11/2007 | 5 | seizure | My son has had no side effects at all taking Lamictal. This is the first drug prescribed to him by his doctor, and he doesn't take any other medications. | He had a seizure in May of 2005. He had an MRI and was diagnoised with Grey Matter Displacia. The doctor said this was probably the cause of the seizure and this was a condition he probably had since birth. He started out on a dose of 25 mg. and is now taking 100mg. twice a day. We have not noticed any changes in his learning, sleeping, or memory. He is an A student and also participates in Marching Band. His doctor said there is a good chance he will outgrow the seizures and could be off the Lamictal by the time he is in his early 20's. He has had no reoccurring seizures since the orignial one in May. | M | 16 | 6 months | 11/21/2005 | 5 | Bi-Polar II | The big one is the zoned out feeling, can't find my words, slight stuttering, headaches, dizziness, mood swings increased acne, increased libido. | This is my first medication. All the side effects leveled off around 5-6 months. It was really tough to come on. I got bad headaches each time the dosage increased. I got violent mood swings that would change multiple times a day. I felt really crazy for a few weeks. I would get completely depressed, happy, angry all within a few hours and with the littlest reason. I would recommend that you have a good support system in place as you work up to the appropriate dosage. Unlike others, I actually got a huge sex drive boost, which while it sounds good, was difficult to manage and quite frustrating for my significant other as well as myself. Having said all that, the results are amazing. I feel so much more in control of my life and my emotions now. I can think clearly and get through my day better. I can experience emotions without letting them ruin my life. I can feel depressed and still manage my life and my job. | M | 31 | 7 months | 3/4/2007 | 5 | Seizures from Brain Tumor | I've been taking it so long I don't know what's a side effect of the medicine, and what's a side effect of getting older. But these are some of the negative symptoms I feel are caused from Lamictal: -Horrible nightmares (about 5 per week) -Frequent muscle cramps and backache -Poor short term memory | I take 400mg oer day to prevent seizures caused by a brain tumor which was removed about 12 years ago. After a few years of taking the medicine I went to the doctor to try and see if I could stop taking it. I started to taper off the dosage and all of the sudden I would get these periods of about a minute where I couldn't talk. I would be find otherwise but just could not get any words out. It was very akward, especially at work, or mid conversation with someone. Anyway we upped the dosage and I have been fine ever since. The nightmares I get are horrible though, and I think it's from the medicine. | M | 31 | 10 years | 1/5/2007 | 5 | Bipolar Type II | Difficulty finding the right word, articulation issues (losing the thread in the middle of speaking, etc.). Short term memory loss, blurred vision (at times), more frequent urination. | Tremendously helpful controlling frequency and severity of mood swings, especially depression. I was misdiagnosed with depression for twenty years because I did not have classic mania. Lamictal has allowed me to have a better relationship with my wife and children, as I no longer have the explosive rages and uncontrollable anger and irritation I had with severe mood swings. The suicidal thoughts and self loathing I have experienced all my life are now less frequent and of shorter duration. To help yourself keep a daily mood log--this will help you rate the effects of the drug over the long term--mine is in horizontal bar graph form, with normal in the middle, ranging from severely depressed to severely elevated on each end. This gives me an instant visual baseline for comparison over time. The degree and severity of your cycling are immediately apparent at just a glance, as is your progress over time. | M | 49 | 2 years | 1/5/2007 | 5 | Bipolar I disorder | Some initial constipation, occasional severe headache if it starts to dissolve before swallowing | I have slowly had my dosage increased to 150mg / day. There was little improvement until 100mg and then I started a depressive episode again. The 150mg /day dose fortunately has stabilized my moods very well. Still have my personality and still have good days and bad days, but the moods don't escalate further than blue or upset and come back to normal shortly (hours). When switching to 100mg from 50mg I felt almost intoxicated for two days but quickly adjusted. Recently I have developed pneumonia, which can be related to a lowered immune function, but it mostly is not related to the medication. Overall I am very impressed with the tolerablility and control of symptoms I have had. | M | 24 | 14 weeks | 12/23/2006 | 5 | Bipolar/Depression | Very few; especially compared to other mood stabilizing medications I have taken in the past. For the first few weeks I had some difficulty with memory and word recall, but this went away with time. I sometimes experience more vivid dreams, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Otherwise, no side effects of note. | This is an excellent medication that has significantly improved my life. After having tried Lithium, Depakote, and many other anti-depressants, I was frustrated. But after taking Lamictal, and sticking with it, the results have been exceedingly positive. I strongly recommend it. | M | 27 | 10 months | 7/7/2007 | 5 | mixed bipolar state | none | After getting worse on zoloft and overmedicated on geodon to counteract the mania caused by the zoloft, Lamictal has stabilized my mood enough to allow me to benefit from therapy. | M | 16 | 8 months | 11/18/2006 | 5 | bipolar 1 | I have had terrible night sweats with missed or late doses, but nothing more than that. It has helped the mood swings a great deal. Haven't found anything to really help the anxiety though. | Love it, I do not have so many obsessive thoughts. | M | 38 | 8 months | 5/26/2006 | 5 | Bi-Polar Type 1 | PLEASE READ!!!!!! As many others with bi-polar, I have been on multiple medications. After my first manic episode, I went into a severe depression that lasted over a year. The only medication that has helped me get out of this depression was Lamictal. I often thought that my depression was mostly situational, because I have been out of work for an extended period of time, and I have been living a life of misery (sleeping, watching tv ALL DAY). After starting Lamictal, I started feeling like myself again. I must tell you that I had some side effects (light rash, dizziness, neck pain, swelling of the throat) but they were all dose related. I went up to 300mg and had to back down to 150mg, but I am still benefiting from this dosage. I also take the following medications, but I did not get relief until the Lamictal: Geodon 80mg, Ativan 1mg(for anxiety as needed), Effexor 300mg, Provigal 200mg. Lamictal has been a life saver for me. I wish I was not on any medication, but I take th | It's the only medication that has helped with my severe depression. I would give up all my other medications to stay on Lamictal. Lamictal has been a life saver for me. Hang in there, you will feel better soon, even if Lamictal does not work for you. GOD is on your side. | M | 35 | 8 months | 5/2/2006 | 5 | bipolar — rapid cycling | impairs cognitive functions. i often have problems recalling vocabulary and even more often word pronunciation. i can become disoriented at times. on a couple occasions i have confused north and south in relation to where i wanted to go (i.e. going northbound instead of southbound in areas i've lived my entire life.) i had intended to major in mathematics, but gave it up because i lost my natural inclination for it. the work would become confusing and disorganized, spending long periods on single problems and still getting the answer wrong. my speech becomes disorganized to. i'll say things wrong. the best example is "when life gives you lemonade, make lemons." | despite the side-effects, it's the most effective drug i've ever taken in treating my illness. every other anticonvulsant bipolar treatment was nowhere near effective and caused extreme lethargy. | M | 26 | 1.5 years | 4/24/2006 | 5 | Bi polar disorder | At first euphoria and vivid dreams. Now a sense of well being. | Fortunately for me,this is the best medication I have ever taken for my bi polar disorder. At first I was skeptical and paranoid about developing a rash, but after being on it for a few weeks I was beginning to experience it's positive effects. I was taking Wellbutrin (300 mg. XL) in the morning and my Lamictal at night. My Doctor gradually increased my dosage to 100mg. over a months period of time and I continue on that dosage today. I stopped taking the Lamictal at night and find that the vivid dreams subsided almost immediately. The hardest part of taking the Lamictal for me was the temptation to continue increasing my dosage. The euphoria I felt was amazing in the beginning. I was no longer agitated and irritable and had a real sense of well being. My violent mood swings had subsided and I felt better than I had in years. I find myself leveled off and stable at 100 mg. along with the Wellbutrin. I was also taking Seroquel (50 mg.) at night for sleep but found it hard to get up in t | M | 40 | 1 years | 4/30/2006 | 5 | Bi Polar 2 | Occasional challenge in finding a certain word. Return of childhood asthma. Floating dark specks over my vision. Random feeling of water trickling over my fingers (almost like they are falling asleep). Decrease in sexual activity. Concerning rash and sores in my mouth. Doctor lowered dosage per day from 200 MG to 175 MG. After this the rash and sores cleared up. IF YOU EXPERIENCE A RASH CONTACT YOUR DR. right away...it can be very serious | Prior to taking Lamictal, I quite literally had a nervous breakdown. I was incapable of functioning and was absolutely exhausted and overwhelmed. By combining therapy with Lamictal, I have returned to feeling much more stable. I was clearly suffering for many years prior to my recent breakdown, and feel like I am my old stable self again. Keep in mind if you are Bi Polar, do not confuse the illness with the medication. For instance if you begin suffering from insomnia, it is likely due to the illness and not the medication. In my non professional opinion, stay on it unless you have the rash or sores. | M | 29 | 2 months | 5/20/2007 |