At what dosage did you notice Lamictal helping with mood issues?

Hey there, a few months back my doc put me on Lamictal for mood stabilizing (I'm bi-polar) but I didn't tolerate it at all - I got real bad headaches, and it trigger a manic episode,so I had to stop it and go on a different medication. My husband and I were hoping it was going to help because according to my doc. it doesn't cause alot of weight issues. Your doctor might be able to give you a better idea of how long it might take for you to notice a difference -- I know for me it usually takes be 6 and 8 weeks for me to feel like anything is working -- Hang in there getting the right medicine and dosage is a difficult process, keep open communication with your Dr. is important if you don't feel like its working in a reasonable amount of time ask for a change. I used to hate taking my medication - but I'm on the right combination now and very grateful to for it. :)

I changed psychiatrists a while ago and the new told me that I had been misdiagnosed and that I didn't have anxiety, but that I was bipolar. I thought she had to be mistaken since I was 33 at the time and I thought I (or someone in my family, or my husband) would have noticed by then that I was. But she put me on Lamictal and nothing happened. She raised the dose 3 times and still nothing happened. So I thought she was the one who was loopy and I stopped seeing her. Jump ahead 2 years to now, when I've been on Topamax for about 2.5 months and lo and behold - my moods, that I didn't even know were so erratic - are now stabilized. Turns out I really am bipolar. (Of course now I feel bad for telling my old shrink that I thought she was full of it.) The med just wasn't right for me (or wasn't right at the time - who knows?) Keep working with your doc but make sure your doc is willing to think outside the "lamictal box" if its just not working out. I didn't realize it - but it can take a *long* time to work.

I'm actually up to 300mg of Lamictal,been on the dose for a couple years. I think for me it took a few months before i started to feel better. I'm also taking WellButrinXL and Paxil. Only problem I had with Lamictal was everytime my dose was upped I would gain a couple pounds. I'm actually starting the process of weening myself off of the Lamictal and its going to take 6 weeks to totally get off the stuff, that is over course if I dont have any problems with the lower doses along the way. My psychiatrist is seeing me more frequently while he's lowering my doses. Only problem I've had so far is my sleep pattern is horrible. I'm hoping it goes away or can be counteracted with something else. Hope you're feeling better! :) -Stephanie

Sorry to hear that you're having so much trouble. I'm on Lamictal, too, for an unspecified temporal lobe disorder. I really have more problems with major depression, but I know what it's like to have your emotions go all over the place. I'm very sensitive to medications and tend to metabolize them quickly, so I started noticing effects after the first week, at 75 mgs. I do need 300 mgs, though, unfortunately----my shrink said he thought that I might even benefit from more; but at my size, it wouldn't be safe. If you've been on Lamictal for 2-4 weeks, you really SHOULD be noticing at least a little bit of improvement by now. Try talking to your doctor. You might want to try another medication, but there also might be improvements in your abilities or thought processes that you can't see for yourself yet. It would definitely help to get other opinions here.

I'm using lamictal primarily because its what is supposedly one of the few medicines that actually "may" be helping with bipolar depression. It has somehow helped me with some of the agitation or irritability, and that seemed to be at around 200mg when i noticed it working some. I am on 400mg right now tho, and was on Quetiapine 600mg a the same time, but we have switched to clozapine because I am exhibiting a very mixed episode right now. I'm very depressed emotionally but seems behavior wise i'm very manic and dissociating some due to PTSD. My psychiatrist had to change quetiapine into an antipsychotic that had faster results for mania yet still has some antidepressant properties. Worst comes to worst, if this doesnt work, he will be forced to add low dose risperdal, and then may decrease my lamictal slowly. I cannot really say whether lamictal works/worked for me and or what specific symptom as i jump from one symptom to another so fast. But for agitation it definitely did help.

Hi, Ive been on Lamictal for a year, increased it from 50-400mg presently. The therapeutic dose is supposed to be on the average around 200-250. i am bipolar but more on the depressed side, in m case i'd love to be hypomanic i get more things done. With my doctors consent, I tinker around with my lamictal dose meaning its always 400mg, but i either take it all at night, or take 100-200 in the morning and the rest at night. ive noticed it helps my anger, irritability during the day if i shift some in the morning. though i also do take Seroquel and we were debating whether to add on lithium or another antipsychotic. Tho ive been on others in combination, like risperdal, zyprexa, solian... we now have moved back to taking Leponex (think its clozaril in the US). my mood stability is so erratic because I am also what they call a mized rapid cycling bipolar. Plus being more on the depressed side, they dont really have meds that efficiently control that. Its all about neurotransmitters, used to be simple, dopamine and serotonin... the reason lamictal came into play is now they added glutamate which is what lamictal acts on. My doctor recently attended a conference on bipolar disorder and Yatham discussed bipolar depression and right now the efficacy to stabilizing with lamictal is apparently like 17%. even with an aff-on antidepressant there is no significant efficacy rate, and you have a risk to switch to mania. All I can say is, it seems to work miracles for some people. It has for a lot of my doctors patients even as low a dose as 100-200. i'm unfortunately an exception but thats only because i have compounded problems such as ptsd. I do hope it works for you.