Posted by psychobot5000 on December 7, 2006, at 15:25:46
In reply to Lamictal and cognitive / memory side effects, posted by SLS on November 30, 2006, at 6:19:49
Just wanted to add my experience, which was similar to others'. The cognitive side-effects are very real.
For the first few days on Lamictal, the mood benefit was great enough that my mind was clearly functioning better--my depressive pseudodementia was all but gone. However, the initial mood relief passed within days (except for a bump after a dose-increase), and left me more depressed than when I started. So I lost the initial cognitive benefits that went with the relief of my underlying disorder. But beyond that, thinking gradually began to feel more slowed, especially after moving up to 50mg. I had word-finding difficulties, felt a less competent driver, and felt as though there was a bit of fog preventing my mind from having its normal (minimal) precision. It felt unnatural an unpleasant.
I won't know whether it would have stopped on its own, because the longer I was on the stuff the more depressed it seemed to make me, and I stopped (both times) after no more than several weeks.
I looked it up at the time, and found that most anticonvulsants seem to cause cognitive side-effects, but that lamotrigine is supposed to be better than most, at least for some patients. Clearly not all of them.
poster:psychobot5000
thread:708905
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061206/msgs/711207.html