I have been prescribed Lamictal for seizures, and am currently ta...

I switched to Lamictal from Depakote 3 1/2 years ago from Depakote and have not had any side effects. In fact, my PMS, mood swings fatigue, weight gain, among other side effects went away within a month. I couldn't be happier on this drug. When I was younger, they had me on Dilantin for a short period of time and my mom insisted that the doctor take me off of it because I was incredibly moody and exhausted all the time. That drug is very old and very toxic, which results in many negative side effects. Have you considered going off that drug? I have had seizures since I was 11 yrs. old-the past 21 years of my life. I have been on several different meds and my mom researched all of them when my condition began. Dilantin was one of the worst along with Tegretal. Lamictal has been a god-send for me. However, everyone's body chemistry is different, so you're case may be different. Just some things to consider...........

My husband is on 300 mg of lamitcal and 600 mg of dilantin a day and the side effects are terrible. Mood swings, depression, hard time swallowing, coughing, I have a call into his neurologist to take him off of this stuff. Good luck to you all.

I do get depressed a lot easier, my worst side effects are my headaches and my memory loss! Memory loss scares me to death. I'm only 28 and can't remember a lot of stuff and this hasn't ever happened w/any other anti-seizure medicine I've been on. I'm on 200mg. I was on 400mg but I had an episode where I woke up one morning and couldn't hardly see anything and couldn't stand up on my own. It freaked me out!

I'm on 200mg/am and 15mg/pm of lamictal. Initially I was also taking 275mg of phenytoin but I've been reducing the dose of that gradually over the past few weeks. Last week, I started getting muscle aches in my arm, neck and shoulders. I reduced the medication further on Friday and I've been in a terrible mood for most of the weekend. Could this (the mood) be a result of the reduction and are side effects more likely to be prominent once I'm off the phenytoin?

I have noticed a big mood change in myself since being on lamictal. I take it along with a cocktail of other drugs to control my seizures. But so far I think its doing me more harm than good. But my doctor wants me to stick it out for a little while longer. Im also taking Keppra and Zonegran for seizures. I also have hairloss, tremors and sleeplessness.

Briefly, about a year ago, I began having an increasing number of partial and general seizures, and was brought up to a dosage of 700mg per day (say "WOW"). It was at this point that I began noticing what could only be called "hard-core" side effects. These included days where I was just living in a never-ending dreamlike existence. Totally confused, paranoid, suicidal, having an unrelenting feeling of not being able to breath, feeling bloated in my abdomen, and regularly being struck with a very irregular, very scary, rapid heart beat.
I'm at 600mg/day now and still have most of the side effects, but in decreasing fashion. I have been put on keppra at 1000mg/day, and aside from being very tired at times because of it, it seems to control the seizure activity quite well. I'm hoping to decrease the Lamictal to 400-500mg/day and maybe increasing the keppra to 2000mg.
Oh, I can say though, that working as a professional artist, the crazy-cocktail does wonders for increasing creative output! (now if I could just stay awake...)