Posted by fluffy on October 16, 2003, at 12:01:14
In reply to Re: lamictal questions , posted by linnette on October 15, 2003, at 11:00:44
Hi Linnette--
Welcome to the bipolar II, AD induced agitation club!! I don't know exactly what your experiences have been--what AD's (I'm guessing SSRI's?) or what mood stabilizers you have tried.
I'll tell you what--I also had a really bad spin out from AD's--SSRI's anyway. I was first put on Lamictal by my pdoc after a nightmarish mixed state on SSRI's. At first, I did find Lamictal to be a bit activating and I had some agitation, but it was nothing like the SSRI's (where I wanted to peel my own skin off, and was grinding my teeth, practically hallucinating about suicide, couldn't sleep a wink for DAYS, etc.).
I put up with the Lamictal agitation for awhile, and found that it went away *a little* over time. Unfortunately, it just wasn't enough to quell my irritable hypomania bouts. And I had a lot of sleep problems on Lamictal alone.
So now I'm trying Trileptal (600mg) with the Lamictal, and it seems to quell the hypomania scatterbrain stuff. I am also giving Wellbutrin a try (along with 200mg Lamictal, 600mg Trileptal and 7.5mg of Restoril for sleep). I started feeling very depressed again, so I need a little boost on the AD side.
For me (and I can ONLY speak for myself) the Lamictal did SOMETHING, but I still needed to augment over time. If you feel agitated still over time, you should maybe talk to your doc about adding another mood stabilizer on top of the Lamictal. Feel comforted that maybe an augmentation or fine tuning on your dosing could really help if Lamictal doesn't do it alone. (it may work alone, and if it does--YIPPY!)
I'm very happy for what Lamictal did for me compared to the nightmare of SSRI's.
Best of luck and take care--
Katyp.s. Just so you know, most people on this board are feeling FRUSTRATED with their current regimine, and they may not be full of success stories. So I qualify my advice and warn that not all people here are offering support. Sometimes they are just pooped out with drug trials.
poster:fluffy
thread:269540
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031015/msgs/270020.html