Question for those on Lamictal

[EveW]

Hi everyone,

I take 300 mg of Lamictal and my doctor has me take 150 mg in the morning and 150 mg at night. Do you guys have the split dose, too, or do you take the full amount at once?

Thanks

[dancesintherain]

I'm all at once (at night). We played around with it a little bit b/c I was having some daytime sleepiness issues and we weren't sure whether it was a symptom or a side effect (of lamictal or something else). No answers to that mystery, but it's been better since I've been doing it at night time, I think.

[notfred]

Neuro doc was insistent it be a divided dose.

nf

[Heatherta7]

I take my entire dosage at night. I too played around with it a bit to see what worked for me as my pdoc suggested I split the dosage. After trying different times to take it, I found that at night was best for me.

[EveW]

I wonder if it makes a big difference if you take it in divided doses or all at once. My doctor always told me to take 150 mg in the morning and 150 mg at night. She never said anything to me about taking the 300 mg at once. So does anyone find it makes a difference on which you do?

[dancesintherain]

My pdoc's comment was that when it's used for epilepsy, it's important to be in split dosing. for mood disorders, less so.

I can't say that I noticed a difference, but I like it as is now. I may not have given the split dosing enough of a chance b/c my pdoc didn't request or require it.

[nonsum]

when it's used for epilepsy, it's important to be in split dosing. for mood disorders, less so.

i too have been told this. i'm biploar so i take my 300 mg dose all at once in the morning. i tried splitting the dose, taking it at night, and found that taking it in the morning worked best for me. some folks metabolize it faster than others and need to split the dose to keep the blood serum levels stable. other metabolize the drug more slowly and can get away with the once a day dosing. it's a YMMV type deal.

[AnneMarie]

Not certain about this, but I think I read somewhere that doses over 200mg should be split. That might explain it. ?

I take 200mg all at night with the rest of my meds. While titrating, i split the dose. I then tried morning and evening. Since it didn't seem to effect my sleep, it's just easier to take all my meds together.

ETA:

The Prescribing Info Sheet recommends divided dose for anything over 200mg.

[notfred]

.

ETA:

The Prescribing Info Sheet recommends divided dose for anything over 200mg.

That is my read of the PI, also. BP doses top out, officially, at 200 mgs. So you see a lot of once daily dosing.

300 mgs is the low end, if you are not taking other AED's, for seizures. So you see twice daily dosing

in seizure disorders.

nf

[fluffybirdie]

I was on the tiny dose of 100 mgs a day when my first doc thought I was bipolar. I split the dose into 2x 50 and felt much more even than when taking it all together.

[AirMarshall]

I tried taking it at night, but it was keeping me awake, so switched to mornings, 100mg. Some people it makes a bit sedated so night is better.

I've never seen anything in the literature about the need for split dosing. Lamictal has one of the longest half lives of any medicine (upwards of 32 hours) so from a pharmacokinetics stand point, it is not really needed. However, for epilepsy where any drug failure may cause immediate and life threatening seizures, the most cautious approach would be to split dose.

cheers, a.m.

[AnneMarie]

Divided dosing is inferred from the tables on [link=http://us.gsk.com/products/assets/us_lamictal.pdf]pages 8 and 12 in the PI sheet[/link] where dividied dose is stated for dosing over 200mg, as adjusted for co-administration with Depakote or Tegretol.

[crazynotstupid]

I split my dose but it's just as easy for me to do cuz I split doses with my other meds too. I used to drop it all at night. I haven't noticed any particular difference mood-wise. I'm on 3oo mg btw.

[rowen]

I was splitting the dose when I was nursing, but I'm taking it all at once now that I'm not. I take 150 mg.