lamictal --> hypomania?

lamictal --> hypomania? only on 50mg! Rate Topic:

#1 Guest_sarahsnow_*

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Posted 21 February 2010 - 03:02 PM

Every SSRI and SNRI under the sun made me manic so now I'm titrating up on lamictal, only to 50mg for the past 5 days, and my behaviour is again that of a reckless 19 year old- promiscuity, spending, cant stfu, insomnia (sometimes staying awake for 24+ hrs.) substanse use (opiates- yum). I can't do this again! I already lost my job, my house, my marriage from the cymbalta insanity. But maybe it's just not working yet- maybe it's not the lamictal causing it and I just need to get to a higher does. Study I read said 8-16 weeks! My pdoc thinks I will be at 200+mg eventually but I'm a nutcase and trying to do something before I'm too manic to give a damn!! Depression is gone, anxiety remains occasionally but now this craziness again--- ahhh!!

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#2 Stacia

balancing boulders because boulders balance beautifully

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Posted 21 February 2010 - 03:22 PM

Lamictal tends to act more like an antidepressant at low doses and more like a stabilizer at higher ones. Even at higher doses, it's generally not thought of as a strong antimanic. Because of this activation, Lamictal often is paired with a stronger antimanic.

Call your pdoc first thing Monday. What's going on is significant. Describe what you're experiencing, when it started, etc. Most likely you will get something else to help calm you down.

Dx: Bipolar I, ADD
Rx: Tegretol 400mg, Lamictal 250mg, Risperdal 3mg, Seroquel 50-100mg, Metropolol, Lasix, Klonopin, Oxycodone, and other stuff these days
It's amazing how challenging the simple things in life can become.

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#3 nalgas

Stand back! I'm going to try Science!

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Posted 21 February 2010 - 11:35 PM

Stacia speaks the truth. Lamictal is frequently awesome at fixing the depression end of things, and it can help somewhat with reducing the severity of/increasing the length of time between mood episodes, but it's not great at directly handling mania on its own. Because of its antidepressant powers, it can be activating/energizing for some people, which you seem to have figured out first-hand already. Either that, or it's just not enough to handle whatever your mood's doing naturally at this dosage. It can pair up really well with things that handle mania well but don't do as well with depression, like some of the atypical antipsychotics or some of the other anticonvulsants and mood stabilizers, though.

Regardless of whatever the cause is, I'm with Stacia on it being a big deal and worth a call to your doctor tomorrow as soon as you can. There are plenty of things they can try to beat (hypo)mania into submission before it gets any worse, and then you and they can hopefully come up with a way to keep everything in check while seeing if the med works for you or not.