Lamictal and god

My daughter, who is 22 yrs old now, has been on lamictal since January (seizures which came out of the blue after being ill for 2 years) this year. She ended up in the hospital for most of February with vomiting and diarrhea. She was first diagnosed with celiacs, then gastroparesis, all the time the neurologist is telling us it ABSOLUTELY CANNOT BE THE LAMITCAl...now, she has had some twitching and the doctor increased the lamictal from 100mg 2xs daily to 150mg 2xs daily. Well, the diarrhea, which she's already on all kinds of stomach/bowel medicine, never really resolved but now with the increase is worse. I just called and will take her back on Friday, but think we need to find a new doctor, Good luck to everyone. and God help us all.

Has anyone developed tartive dyskenisia. It is involuntary body movements. Mine are in the mouth, like I am sucking on my teeth . It is very disturbing and listed as one of the side effects. It can occur in other parts of the body, like tapping.

WOW. I have been taking Lamictal for about 4 months for my BP and up until now I have never known all the side effects. You see, I am uninsured and am forced to go through MHMR. They (at best) give you an idea of what the side effects are. It is very difficult to even get a one on one with an actual doctor. You sit in a chair for 2 minutes and walk out with a bad full of drugs. Needless to say, my mood hasn't been "stabilized", in fact, I think it's worsened. What's worse is that between the weight gain and the loss of my short term memory I feel FAT and STUPID; causing me to be even more depressed. I never even thought that the memory loss was related to the Lamictal; the weight gain, maybe. Today I thought, "let me check this out." and I stumbled upon this blog. THANK GOD! I mean I'm sorry that we are all suffering but I'm relieved to know that it's not ME. Thanks for sharing all, and good luck!

I HAVE BEEN ON THE LAMICTAL FOR 5 MONTHS NOW( FOR MINOR BI POLAR EPISODE). AT FIRST I FELT A LITTLE "SPACEY" AS I HAVE INCREASED MY DOSAGE EACH TIME I NOTICED VERY PAINFUL MENSTRUAL CRAMPS, WORSE PMS, EXTRA LONG MENSTRUATION CYCLE, JOINT PAIN IN THE HIP, FORGETTING EVERYTHING( LOSS OF SHORT TERM MEMORY), AND EXTREME TIREDNESS IN THE DAY AND NOT SLEEPING AT NIGHT. I HAD BEEN ON 75MG A DAY ( 2 IN AM, 1 IN PM) AND THEN UPPED MY DOSE TO 100MG(2 IN AM, 2 IN PM). THE SIDE EFFECTS ARE WORSENING, ESPECIALLY THE JOINT PAIN. I HAVE ALSO NOTICED PANIC ATTACKS AND IRRITABLENESS THAT I HADN'T HAD BEFORE. WORST OF ALL, IS THAT I HAVE GAINED ABOUT 27 LBS WHILE TAKING THIS MED. HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD ANY OF THESE SYMPTOMS? PLEASE REPLY TO TELL ME THE BEST REMEDY.

I also am having a difficult time with memory loss. I have a very short term memory. I never used to be this way. Before I started taking Lamictal, I was taking Depakote. I haven't been on Lamictal for that long, so I do not know if my previous medications have caused my memory loss. I also get dizzy sometimes and I'm feeling out of breath lately. Some other medications I've taken are: Zyprexa (which gave me type I diabetes); Abilify; Risperadol; Adavan...the list goes on, unfortunately. I have been taking anti-psychotic drugs since I was 16, and I am 37 years old now. God help me!

I started taking Lamictal about six weeks ago for epilepsy. Now keep in mind, I was on Dilantin which worked great for 17 years and then suddenly stopped working. I have been in medication hell since then. First Topamax made me dumb as a rock. I would space out all the time. Worst drug ever. Then Keppra which was better in that my memory/ability to speak came back but I had these intense ups and down. I had rages constantly. Now I'm on Lamictal. So far, it's better than the Topamax and the Keppra, however the dreams are very intense as are the night sweats. I'm also experiencing much hair loss. Fortunately I have a full head of hair but I'm afraid I will eventually lose it all.

This is a total nightmare and i need advice! I was on Lamictal for a year and about six months into my health began to slowly deteriorate. It started with shortness of breath and heart palpitations and eventually attacked every system of my body. My symptoms are muscle pain, spasms and knots to the point that i can't turn my neck sometimes, joint pain (mostly knees), stabbing floating pain everywhere, headaches, frightening tingling in my extremities and a few times my entire body, sore throat, flu-like feelings, stomach cramps, bloating and heartburn. The list goes on. I have been off of it now for two weeks. My psychiatrist has never seen this type of reaction before and is not convinced it is the Lamictal. I have been to every single type of doctor and the ER twice, had extensive lab work, CT scan and two MRIs. I have been off Lamictal now for two weeks and am not feeling much relief. I am so scared and frustrated and please need advice. Has anyone else experienced this? Does it ever go away? I feel like I am literally living a nightmare with no-one to turn to for advice because no-one seems to know ANYTHING!!!!

Hello! I've been taking Lamictal for about 6 years now. I'm diagnosed as BP II and have the most difficulty with depression. I currently take 500 mg-- 400 mg at night and 100 mg in the morning. I have to say that Lamictal has been very good to me for the most part. As long as I don't put myself into extremely stressful positions-- such as my last job-- I do quite well. I also take a combination of supplements with Lamictal which seem to give the extra push that I needed to completely get out of my last depression. I take 1000 mg EPA (fish oil), B-100 Complex, Folic Acid, Cal-Mag, multivitamin (high quality, organic), Vitamin D (at least 1000 mg) and a few others.

I notice that when I take it at night if I don't go to sleep right away, my mouth and tongue will tingle. Sometimes when I take it in the morning, I feel foggy and dizzy and sometimes get vertigo. Every now and then the side effects seem to get worse, which I am not sure about. I started searching on the internet because I've been noticing that the "tip of the tongue" problem has been occurring more and more often. I often cannot think of the word I want, simple things even. As others have mentioned, I also have difficulty with memory. I am still very successful, currently pursuing a 2nd Master's Degree, but have noticed that achieving the same level of quality of work takes a lot more effort than during my previous degrees.

I do have some periods of anger/irritability and have recently been sleeping a lot, though it probably has a lot more to do with the time of year-- winter with less light-- than anything else.

I am particularly worried about my memory loss and inability to sound "well-spoken" in a setting which demands that of me. It is frustrating! I don't want to do any lasting harm on my brain. After increasing to 500 mg from 400 mg, I have noticed more of these brain issues, but I'm also doing so much better mood wise!