Anger w/ Lamictal Increase?

[Nozzala]

Hi,
My tonic clonic seizures have been well controlled with Lamictal for the past several years - as in no episodes for about 5 years. Then out of the blue I have 2 in one day. So we up the Lamictal from 400mg to 600mg/ day. My neurologist said that it might be overkill, and that I may feel lousy, and if that's the case, we could drop down to 500mg/ day.

Needless to say, I went through a week of 600mg/ day in a haze, and we just cut me down to 500. Now I feel a lot better, especially compared to 600, but compared to 400, I'm still not the same. I've always been an optimistic and happy person, but now I'm more angry and sad. I still have plenty of happy left, but it's not really fair to my wife and kids.

Has anyone else had this happen to them?
Thanks!

[Minkels]

Hello,

I'm on the Lamictal XR and it's also doing okay as far as controlling tonic clonics. My doctor increased my dose from 150 mg up to 250 mg back in November of 2010 and my mood definitely took a turn for the worse. I'm not normally short-tempered (very much the opposite!) or negative for no reason, but within 2 days of the dose increase I was both bad-tempered and in a bad mood for no reason.

I called the doctor and he told me to give my body a "couple of weeks" to adjust to the new dosage. I was still in a crappy frame of mind after 4 weeks so he ended up adding Zoloft in December.

I've since been able to come off the Zoloft, but am still not as happy as I was on the lesser dose of the Lamictal XR. It's kind of ironic since Lamictal XR is also used for Bipolar...go figure.

I'm going back to the doctor in another month and am going to see if he can pull the Lamictal XR dose back down to the 150 mg and put the topiramate dose back up since I'm not re-gaining the weight back anyhow (the whole purpose of upping the Lamictal XR/decreasing the topiramate). If he doesn't go for that, I will be going back on the Zoloft. I'm not in as bad of a mood, but don't really feel like myself on the higher dose.

So the short answer to your question is yes, Lamictal puts me in a lousy mood, too.

[Endless]

Nozzala,

I'm on Lamictal, 300mg. It's almost completely doing the trick for me, but not quite. (almost is good enough for me)

Anyway, my moods are cr*ppy anyway, both due to other meds and another neurological condition that I have. What side effects I have had from Lamictal evened out after several months. Most notably, these horrible dark thoughts, as in doing that would not be good. I hung in there and they finally have dissapeared.

500mg is a pretty high dose of Lamictal. If it is too much for you, tell your doc. Maybe he'll consider either another drug, or another drug together with it. I can see why you'd want just lamictal, though, because it's known for being the anti-seizure med that screws with you intellect the least. It leaves you with more ability to think.

Hang in there.

[momof3boys]

i'll share my experience with Lamictal. I was recently put on Lamictal for the first time in april of this year. I started out at 25mgs twice a day the first week, and got to 50mgs twice a day the second week. During the time i was on the Lamictal (16 days) I experienced some very bad mood swings. I would break down in tears, get angry out of the blue, etc. That was just the start of it though. By day 7 of the Lamictal, I had what looked like acne on my chin and jaw area. Those turned into sore like areas, where it would be very painful, and get cracked and start to bleed. I tried everything to get them to go away. By day 11, I was now on 50mgs twice a day, and I woke up with really tender and slightly swollen glands in my neck area. I let it go for a few days, where things just got worse. Thats when my neurologist said to see my primary care dr because he said I had a infection going on. After taking tests, and drawing blood, all came back negative. My dr said I was having a allergic reaction to the lamictal. My neurologist dr didnt agree, but just three days after stopping it, my mood swings were so much better, and the swelling I had in my neck had gone down alot! By a week, I was back to my normal self again.

My advise if that youre having problems, let your dr know.

[Nozzala]

Thanks Minkels, Endless, Momof3boys -

I'll hang in there for a little while to see how it goes. I'm reluctant to go try another drug because this has worked so well for me in the past. And I can't have meds messing with my head too much....

I'd almost rather try going down to 400mg again, and hoping it was the sudafed that pushed me over my threshhold (even though that's never happened before) but I'm still scared to have another seizure.

[momof3boys]

Thanks Minkels, Endless, Momof3boys -

I'll hang in there for a little while to see how it goes. I'm reluctant to go try another drug because this has worked so well for me in the past. And I can't have meds messing with my head too much....

I'd almost rather try going down to 400mg again, and hoping it was the sudafed that pushed me over my threshhold (even though that's never happened before) but I'm still scared to have another seizure.

Speaking of sudafed, I was taking that for years without having any problems with it affecting me having seizures. Til this year, my neurologists nurse said that it wasnt a good one to take with antiseizure medications. At the time I was being put back on the Keppra XR after my video EEG, when I just happened to take a sudafed one night. During that night I had a seizure. Now I dont know if it was due to the sudafed, or if it was due to me not being back to where my level should be since he just put me back on Keppra XR.

[felicity]

I have been on 450 mg of Lamictol xr for about 10 years, I think.

They tried to raise it to 600 - I was taking 400. I agreed to 450 - which I have taken for about a year now. There is a point with the Lamictol where I can handle it or not. I just feel weird and floaty when it is too much.

Tell you doctor how you are feeling. It is important, I think - to be at a functional level, but also have the seizures controlled.

I hope that you get this straightened out.

[Eibhlin]

I'm so sorry to read about your difficulties with seizures (it must have been quite upsetting) and increasing Lamictal. I'm amazed that you are on such high doses, but it's all about increasing quality of life, and I hope you'll be ok soon. Make sure you mind yourself.

bdw - That's interesting about Sudafed - scary!

[alivenwell]

I'm on a combo of Lamictal (400) and Mysoline (metabolizes into something like phenobarbital). That's worked for a really long time...kinda surreal.

[Blue Cat]

It's interesting to see all the different experiences. I started on Lamictal at 300mg and was fine for 7 yrs, no noticable changes mood wise (at least that I know about). I practically live on Sudafed because of bad sinuses and my doc said they don't interact and I've never had any problems with it. The only problem I had was going to generic, 2 szs in 1 1/2 yrs on Torrent generic (Indian) and insisted on getting changed to Teva (manufactured here) which has been better, but Kaiser is not carrying it anymore so my doc agreed to let me go back to Lamictal. After t/c in January my dose is now 750/day plus 2000 Keppra. So many have noted high doses at 400-600 - I've had so few szs in my life and they seem to be drugging me into oblivion compared. I feel okay, and as long as I continue seizure free, I don't care. Sometimes seems like my eyes are jumping around - focus then move around what I'm trying to read then focus back in. Weird.

[tinasmom]

When my granddaughter's dose was higher, we had problems with her behavior in school. I told her doctor that I suspected her Lamictal was causing her behavior problems. He told me that it couldn't be as that was not a side effect. I did my own research and found out that mood issues and behavior changes are a side effect. I then found a doctor that listened to me and we lowered her dosage resulting in no behavior issues and no seizures.

[Eibhlin]

Nozzala, how are you feeling now? I'm reducing Lamictal at the moment (I decided to join the forum to repond to your topic) and I've it described under New- reducing Lamictal in the Foyer.

I would say that feeling lousy was an understatement!

Minkels, if you are going to reduce your dose back to 150mg, I hope your doc will suggest that you go slowly. That way you might be able to find the dose that stabilises your epilepsy most and so you'll feel happier in yourself ... and it might be somewhere in between.

I think that the Lamictal really emphasises feelings of anger! For me, lack of food and sleep can make me a bit of a diva, it's like my head is going to burst, and it's almost like it's on fire, but once I eat, normality resumes.
I've noticed it happening less since reducing meds. My moods generally tend to be fine, but I keep away from annoying people anyway!

Felicity, did they increase to 450 due to a seizure?