Posted by detroitpistons on February 28, 2009, at 18:48:57
In reply to Re: Lamictal optimal dosage, posted by n_wolfie on February 28, 2009, at 18:35:42
I feel for you. You are in a tough situation. If the Lamictal isn't preventing the depression anymore, but it is still causing you cognitive impairment, then....Well, if I were in your shoes, I would consider making a change, even though you're going to have to go through new side effects all over again. I know it sucks, but right now you're not getting any benefit at all. Of course, you need to rule out if there's anything else causing this to happen. Hopefully, you're doctor will have a good solution when you see him in 2 days.
Scott knows more about this than I do, but it seems like 400 mg of Lamictal is more like an epilepsy dose. I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere that, above 200mg, there was no increased therapeutic benefit for depression. This causes me to question whether the Lamictal is the real culprit here.
> But now my mood has worsened, my short term memory is bit better, but I cannot retrieve words or write fluently, at all. Which is a HUGE problem. I'm confused, maybe it was the Nardil side effects doing that? I feel like I have to trade between my writing skills and my mood. Even when my memory was so bad that everyone noticed, I could still take pleasure in things and get out of bed, and now I can't. Lowering the lamictal 100 mg to 400 mg has definitely made me more depressed and more sensitive to criticism, weepy etc. I feel like I just can't win with medications. At one point i was on 30 mg of Nardil and 300 of lamictal, and was clear headed and free of depression, and I know now that if i lower the lamictal another 100 i'm going to be even more depressed. Why doesn't the old combo work? I'm seeing my doctor in 2 days, i suspect that he will up the nardil, am I going to go through side effects all over again now that i'm through with them from the 30 mg dosage? Will the Nardil increase help my writing skills/word retrieval?
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> > FYI...On 200mg of Lamictal, my memory was screwed up enough that people at work noticed, and it was embarassing. I went down to 100mg, and the situation improved a lot.
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> > > Thank you so much!! At least now I can eliminate one variable. Memory is very very slowly improving, (but still not functional) don't know if because of lamictal reduction or nardil helping my depression. The waiting is torture...every time i up the nardil i have to go through another round of side effects. 2 mos so far. And my doc will likely up it again. another mo of side effects. And reducing the Lamictal gives me a miserable week of rebound depression. And I'm so, so tired and unmotivated, but I don't know if that's Nardil or depression either. It's so hard, this is time that I can never get back, that just passes me by while i sit in bed.
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> > > > The Nardil is not making you dumb. Read below.
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> > > > Department of Psychobiology, University of Valencia, Blasco Ibáñez, 21, E-46010 Valencia, Spain. santiago.monleon@uv.es <santiago.monleon@uv.es>
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> > > > This is a selective review of the literature concerning the effects of antidepressant drugs on animal memory, which was performed with the aid of the PubMed database. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors tend to either have no effect on memory or result in its improvement. Studies with cyclic antidepressants have reported no effect or, more often, memory impairments. Pre-training administration of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) has been shown to have either no effect on memory or undermine it (with some isolated exceptions, in which improvements have been recorded), while post-training administration of SSRIs has been demonstrated to improve memory or have no effect. A small group formed by the remaining antidepressants has been shown to improve memory, with the exception of trazodone, which impairs memory. These findings are discussed in the light of knowledge regarding the actions of antidepressants on several neurotransmission systems. The possibility that the effects of antidepressants on memory are the core of the therapeutic effects of these drugs is also considered.
> > > >
> > > > PMID: 17761406 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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poster:detroitpistons
thread:881215
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090223/msgs/883121.html