Posted by LouisianaSportsman on May 14, 2014, at 0:14:00
In reply to Re: Anticonvulsants and the dumb factor » LouisianaSportsman, posted by Beckett on May 12, 2014, at 22:33:43
Lamical is onboard for an antidepressant effect and to see about keeping mood variability low. It might help towards that end, but maybe not enough given how difficult it is to concentrate. I was hoping maybe another AC would work.
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>How high do you think you can dose the Lamictal? Do you think you can reach 100mg.? That would be the target dosage if you were to augment another mood stabilizer to it. 200mg. for monotherapy. If you can handle 100mg. of lamotrigine, perhaps you can adjust to its effects and augment another mood stabilizing drug and a carbamazepine is a good idea.
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So it looks like trileptal would be next to discuss if I understand you correctly.
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>Correct. However, bring up the much underrated:
http://equetro.com/ basically it comes in a very complex extended-release form and it uses carbamazepine which is the only version that is proven to work in bipolar disorder-- it does have the epoxide unlike Trileptal so that may interfere with drug-drug interactions, but I'm not sure if it really applies to your case. I think the Equetro would be the best way to go followed by Aptiom (eslicarbazepine) which is a newer version of Trileptal in plain speak. Ask about Equetro (perhaps more side effects but comes with the chance of more improvement) and Aptiom (least side effects of all) as I think they are the best forms of carbamazepine, anything else would be just common and inferior.
I think Aptiom is clearly the best way to go as it the newest, most refined carbamazepine and the suggested maintenance dose is one 800mg. daily which would be perfect with one 100mg. Lamictal daily for optimal stabilization. You may see dramatic improvement.
poster:LouisianaSportsman
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URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140512/msgs/1065602.html