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Lamotrigine Review

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Brent
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Post  mxgo Mon Apr 19, 2010 8:44 am

I have been taking Lamotrigine for the past six weeks and here is my review. The neurologist said to start on 25 mg and then increase the dosage each week by 25 mg until I am taking two 25 mg in the morning and two 25 mg in the evening. Instead, I started on half a tablet for two weeks to see how it would affect me.

The first morning I was a little groggy, after that I was OK. The first two weeks, I had two to three days of almost no headaches. The rest of the two weeks, I felt Ok, with slight to light headaches. I then increased the dosage to 25 mg; the days were not as good as the previous two weeks. The morning after I increased the dose to 25 mg, I was very groggy and the second morning not so groggy. After that it was OK. I then returned to the 12.5 dosage and the headaches have been reduced, in general, to slight headaches to light, where they are in the background.

Now here are the adverse effects, the headaches have been moderate to severe , with very tight neck and upper back muscles, when the weather has been windy and rainy. The other adverse effect, is that I keep waking up after four to five hours. Sometimes, On days when I can get six to seven hours, I feel great, very slight headaches. To counter this inability to sleep fully through the night, I am going to try melatonin. I have not had any rashes from the medication.

I am on these supplements: Coenzyme Q10 200 mg, Vit B2@ 200 mg, Magnesium 120 mg, Vit B complex w/C. I dropped the Petadolex. I will add folic acid or alpha lipoic acid to the supplements.

I go to a neuromuscular (trigger point) massage therapist for tight muscles. The therapist is also teaching me Somatic exercises, which I believe are better than doing stretches. She says that stretches re-injure the muscles. I have made more progress with the Somatic exercises than the stretches that I was told to do by a PT.

My headaches are chronic, with pain levels of varying intensity, and I only have migraine like symptoms when the pain level is moderate or higher. They started on a specific day and hour, a little over three years ago. Prior to that, I was experiencing very tight muscles. I don't consider myself a migraineur, but rather a fellow traveler.

I am on other meds for HBP and cholesterol. My abortive med is Midrin, but mostly I use tylenol at 500 mg. I seldom use the MIdrin and I limit the tylenol to about twice a week.

Overall, the headache pain level intensity, has not been reduced dramatically, but enough so that I will continue with the Lamotrigine at 12.5 mg.

Martin
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Post  Brent Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:21 am

There is a lot of empirical evidence that the generic for Lamictal, Lamotrigine, is not as effective. I take it for bipolar disorder and had very little success using it for that. When the doc switched it to the brand Name Lamictal it started working fine.

FWIW, one of the side effects listed is headache.
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Post  mxgo Mon Apr 19, 2010 11:17 am

Brent, I believe that the Lamotrigine aggravated the neck and headache pain during the windy and rainy weather. Thinking back, before, windy and rainy weather never bothered me as much as it did when I was on the 25 mg dosage.

While on the 12.5 mg dose, it does bother me (neck and headache pain level increase) but it's not too bad. I will stay on this dosage, since I keep thinking of the occasional days when the headaches are so slight that I am not sure that I have one. I have more of those days, than I did before taking Lamotrigine.

Martin
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Post  tecky Mon Apr 19, 2010 9:22 pm

Martin,

I've been on Lamotragine for about 4 mos. at 50 mg. in the evening. I've tolerated it better than most preventative meds I've tried, especially any other anti-seizure meds.

However, seeing your thoughts that it may be causing the increased neck and headache problems, raised a red flag for me since I've been having worsening problems with those symptoms, although it may be entirely attributable to stopping the amitriptyline (it wreaked havoc on my entire body).

Interesting point for me to think about.

Becky flower


Last edited by tecky on Wed Apr 21, 2010 8:07 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : correct spelling/typo)
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Post  mxgo Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:56 pm

Becky, I remembered these somatic neck exercises that maybe can be done sitting in a plane or airport, that I saw on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO4Dpb7Mx58
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t15xUQLJEE&feature=related

Only do four or five and very slowly. I am doing the eye movements and you can feel the muscles on the side of the neck; the SCMs.

Thanks for your information on your headaches that may be due to the Lamotrigine.

Martin
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Post  mxgo Sun May 02, 2010 10:16 am

It has been two months since I started on Lamotrigine, I am still on the 12.5 dosage. I have added 300 mg of Melatonin to help me sleep. As many forum members have mentioned, the lack of sleep seem to add to our headaches.

The above combination seems to be working for me, aside from when it's very windy and rainy. During those time, as I mentioned previously, the headaches are worse with the Lamotrigine. However, on other days, the headaches are slight to light, and sometimes I am not sure if I have one or not. I still have some neck pain on my left side.

This week, I will be starting somatic exercises with a somatic practitioner to help with neck and upper back muscle problems.

My life seem to be getting back to normal; pre-headache. I am redesigning my front yard and taking some photographs, things that I enjoy doing.
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Post  mxgo Tue Nov 09, 2010 6:32 pm

My final review of lamotrigine. After trying it for about five months, my side effects consisted of increased neck and should pain lower back pain during rainy weather (see above), upset stomach, and greatly increased sensitivity to sound (hyperacusis). These side effects never went away. On the plus side, it did work well for the first week that I took it.

I spoke to my neuro about the side effects, he said that he has not heard of hyperacusis being one of the side effects of lamotrigine. A few web sites do mention that some meds do cause hyperacusus: especially meds that act on the nervous system. To verify that lamotrigine did cause hyperacusis. I tried it again for just on two separate days, while it did reduce the headache for those days, it also increased sound sensitivity both times.

The hyperacusis did go away to a certain extend with acupuncture or just being off the med. I've read that it takes about 8 to 12 weeks for it to go away. Now that I tried it again, I am hoping that it will go away again.

I hope some of the other lamotrigine users will post their experiences for others who wish to try the med. I would not have associated hyperacusis with lamotrigine, if another forum member had not posted her experience with hyperacusis.

Martin
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Post  Migrainegirl Sun Nov 14, 2010 9:36 pm

My expirience with Lamotigrine was very bad. The first month was okay. Then I developed severe nausea. I could not eat anything until evening on most days, and could barely get out of bed without getting really ill. My doctors response was to increase the dosage believing it was migraine causing the illness (even though this had not been a problem in the past and the nausea was even when I did not have a headache). After 2 more weeks of this I finally got him to take me off the lamotigrine. The severe nausea continued for another month after that before it was finally out of my system and I began to get better. I had a full battery of every test imaginable during this period, and no other physical cause of the problem was ever found.

I also developed hyperaccusis during this period that did not go away until I sought separate TRT treatment for it. It still bothers me a little.

Needless to say an entire summer spent in bed and unable to work was a real problem for me, not to mention a frustrating experience. I am now very very cautious about side effects from medications. Oh, and it never did a thing to improve the migraines either.
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Post  jwar Mon Nov 15, 2010 2:26 pm

Lamictal has helped me quite a lot. I use name brand, extended release. 12.5mg is virtually nothing as far as I understand it - I am on 200mg/day.

I still have nearly daily migraines, however they are far less severe and respond well to medication. I also was having auras 1-3 times a month, and have not had a single aura since August when I began the drug. I am also able to eat things (like chocolate) that would have killed me before with no apparent side effects.

Everytime I titrated up the dose, I had headaches for a couple of days (not migrainous, though hard to explain). I also felt a little sleepy and dizzy, and had diarrhea. But after 2-3 days this would disappear. No other side effects.

Overall, I am happy with the drug. I am sad I still have so many headaches, but I refuse to go off of lamictal as I love not having auras and being a little more free in my food decisions. In December we are going to try adding either Botox or an alpha blocker to the mix to see if I can get a better handle on things.
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Post  ermahampton Tue Dec 04, 2012 11:20 pm

I was consumed with depression, anxiety, fear, rage, and compulsive behavior since I entered puberty. I was sent to psychologists who could not help me because my issues were entirely chemical. I finally went to a psychiatrist who put me on Lamotrigine OD 200mg . I am a healthy, peaceful, and productive person for the first time in my life. For more information visit internationaldrugmart.com/lamotrigine.shtml#lamotrigine od 200mg

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