Posted by mjbogdanov on August 3, 2008, at 19:23:56
In reply to Re: Lamictal - Strange heartbeat/Anxiety, posted by Treehugger on July 24, 2008, at 12:17:21
> Hi - I started Lamictal 7 days ago, 12.5 mg per day (drug sensitive so going slow) I felt an initial postive response for a couple of days except for sleeping less & feeling a little agitation. Last night I had - I'll call it a panic attack, & took .5 Xanax which worked. It is fairly common for me to have periods of arrythmia, but it has gotten worse, & my hands were actually (left hand) trembling, fingers jerking, last night. Feeling agitated & a little manic a lot of the time, & butterflies (big ones) high in my stomach. I do not have a diagnosis of bipolar, just SAD & depression. My rapid cyling led me to want to try Lamictal thinking I might be bipolar 2 - I also take 1mg. Clonazepam & .25mg atenolol a day. So - I am concerned about upping dose which I was going to start tomorrow - 50mg, fearing the side effects will get worse. I would like to hang in there, but not sure I can. No sign of rash. I guess I am looking for some encouragement to continue, or advice if it sounds like this is not a good med for me. TH
Hi Tree;
I have had problems trying to go up with the lamictal. The heart palps and pounding bothered me the most. When I read your post it reminded me of my initial titration. I felt a little manic, wasn't sleeping and was very agitated. I lowered my dose back down to 25 mgs. I was however somewhat less depressed so I didn't taper off entirely. I read with great interest the message that came as the initial reply in this thread from SLS (Scott, I believe.) If it weren't for his post, I would have given up. I have done a ton of reading about dysautonomias (a term I had never heard before.) I just read the post re mvp(syndrome.) There is food for thought there as well, especially in my case. All I can tell you is that my experience with lamictal has been similar and that it does seem I am still cycling. But I am going to try to stick it out and slowly make my was past the side effects (I hope) and reach the fabled "sweet spot." I am now taking Rozerem for sleep and that seems to be working for now. I'm at 75mgs so far. I still have lots of mvp/dysautonomic symptoms but from the reading, I understand that they are not as 'life-threatening' as I had originally thought which has calmed me down a bit. I have also made a concerted effort to stay hydrated. This has helped a lot. I actually didn't realize how dehydrated I was, and the more I drink, the better I feel. Sorry you are feeling so bad but do try to stick it out. I sometimes feel like such a lump (still have no energy) but I find I am at least able to do something where, before the lamictal, when I felt bad I was unable to push myself to do anything at all. I sometimes feel a little flat but find when I get going, there really is something there. I am going to visit with a cardiologist in a week and hope to try some beta-blockers to help with the adrenaline sensitivity. Will try to keep you updated re my progress. Please feel to send me a message anytime as I am hoping we will both be better with this effort. I have been on a billion different AD's and finally someone figured out I'm BPII. Keep in touch. Madeleine
poster:mjbogdanov
thread:838791
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080727/msgs/843975.html