Newbi and lamotrigne

[melanie7]

Good evening,

I'm a newbie to this forum group, actually tell you the truth I never joined a forum group before.

I have been living with Epilepsy for the past 20 some years. First I had "petit Mal and then it grew to "Grand Mal".

I have been taking Lamotrigine (lamictal) for the past 16 years and it has worked, I'm now seizure free since July 2000. I recently notice something different. I was taking Mylan-Lamotrigine and then a month and a half ago, my pharmacist gave me APO-Lamotrigine and since then I have been getting twitches in my left index finger, my left eye lid and my left upperlip. I'm not sure if this is the cause. my GP is clueless and I can't get an appointment with my neurologist to see if this is connected.

This is very frustrating and I'm concern especially if this is a pre-seizure.

I'm sorry if i'm venting, but no one else really understands.

[Endless]

Hi, Melanie,

Welcome to the forum! Vent all you want to - that's what this place is for. The people are very understanding, as many of them have been in your shoes before.

You said you couldn't get in to see a neurologist. Can your GP call for you, and get you into one quicker? I don't know the system where you live, so I don't know what works. But there has to be some way to get in there.

Twitching makes me a little suspicious, especially since you've had a medication change. Can your pharmacist call around and get Mylan Lamotragine for you? If not, can you call around and find a pharmacy that has it? Or, maybe get it from an online canadian pharmacy?

My pharmacist is pretty good about calling around for me and finding different brands or dosages. Their current supplier doesn't have the 125mg diamox tabs, only the 250. The great staff there spent hours finding the 125 for me (my doc doesn't want me splitting tabs into quarters).

There's a chance your body may even out and the twitching may stop. Or maybe your doc needs to adjust your dosage up a little if you stay with the APO. If it were me, if your pharmacist can't find the Mylan, then maybe i'd inch the dosage up a tiny little bit. But then I'm not a doctor. Would be great if you could get in to see one.

[Nakamova]

Hi melanie7, welcome to CWE!

I agree with Endlesss, there's a good chance the switch in meds is causing the twitches. I chnaged from the brand Lamictal to the generic Lamotrigine last fall, and while I didn't notice any seizure symptoms, I did feel slightly more dizzy than usual for the first few months. I seem to have adjusted to the generic now.

[Blue Cat]

I was free on lamictal for 7 years then switched to generic and had one grand mal three months later and another breakthrough (at higher dosage) 1.5 years later. Found out the generic was Torrent made in India. Don't know if it'll make a difference, but I made them switch me to Teva generic as at least I know it's made in the US with better oversight from the FDA. After this last seizure they upped my dose again (375 x2) and added 1000 Keppra. It's been 2 months, so far so good. I have had "nervous foot" - you know when you're anxious and it bounces up and down a bit, but that could just be work stress and I can control it if I pay attention, so I don't really care. I will say after switching to the Teva I'm no longer having tingly fingers or other weird feelings.f Good luck and push them on the symptom and change. There's a bunch of other posts in the forum about fillers in generics as well as side affects and efficacy so search around.