Posted by papillon on January 23, 2012, at 3:29:17
In reply to Re: upped lamictal, posted by crazyjoe on January 21, 2012, at 21:53:20
I actually haven't found it sedating or activating. I haven't noticed any particular side effects either. Sometimes I wonder if it is actually doing anything, but I'm taking it to augment an anti-depressant and help stop a bad relapse; perhaps it's not what you see, but what you don't see.
I do know people who have found it very sedating and slowing (developing the "Lamictal Shuffle" and slurring their speech) - right from the initial dose. They discontinued Lamictal. Perhaps if you haven't yet found it activating or sedating, you won't experience such changes at all.
Interesting about the Trileptal. Lamictal does a similar thing with the contraceptive pill; they each lower the effectiveness of the other. My psychiatrist says you can't reliably measure your Lamictal level via blood draws, the way that you can for say Lithium and some anti-depressants; you'll get results, but they may not be meaningful. However, if you can measure Trileptal, perhaps you could monitor how it changes over time in response to changing doses of Lamictal? Or maybe that too would be unreliable because of the interplay with Lamictal... a question perhaps for your doctor! I could well be entirely off track.
Hope things are going well.
poster:papillon
thread:1007905
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120120/msgs/1008130.html