Lamictal and heart arrhythmia

[crazydiamond]

I know there are a hundred million lamictal threads and I did try searching, honest! I just can't find any good info on this.

I seem to be predisposed to this side effect since I have get palpitations now and again. But the lamictal puts it into overdrive, to the point I can't even walk across my house without having constant arrhythmia (and the grave concern I'm going to go into cardiac arrest or something from it).

This side effect appears to be very very rare, according to the med leaflet. The problem is it's the bestestestest drug for my bipolar. It was the first drug I tried after being diagnosed but had to stop after 2 weeks. Then I tried a series of other drugs (trileptal, lithium, and now a cocktail of lithium, abilify, depakote). I just added lamictal back in, with my pdoc hoping that the arrhythmia doesn't come back like before. I'm only on day 3 so we'll see (last time it took a full week before it started).

The idea is to stop some of the other drugs if lamictal works this time. But if it doesn't. . .I'm screwed. I don't know what my pdoc will do.

So I had an idea. . .when I saw a cardiologist last year about my mild palpitations and my murmur, he mentioned that there was a drug, I think a Beta blocker, that can stop palpitations. Does anyone know if I could take lamictal and the beta blocker? Has any body been in this situation before? I'm so frustrated.

[crazydiamond]

Thanks for your reply!

I've had both just regular palpitations and arrhythmia. I've worn the Holter monitor a few times over the last 12 years trying to track it down but it's so infrequent that nobody can track it down. I can go years without it happening and then it'll happen a bunch of times within a few months. Based on my description and with my history of the palpitations and benign murmur my cardiologist did not think it was anything serious and told me to only come back if it got worse.

Now, I was only on Lamictal for 14 days. The first 7 days were just fine. Then slowly over the next couple of days the palpitations got more and more frequent. By day 14 things were getting crazy (and maybe they were just constant palpitations, I could not tell at that point because I had trouble breathing and couldn't do any exertion). I stopped the Lamictal immediately and layed on the couch. In hindsight, not the best move but I had my reasons for not seeking medical care. By the next day I was much better and by day 2 off the drug everything was back to normal.

I think Lamictal is the best drug for me, even this go-round I feel so much better. So I was hoping I could take it and just take another drug to manage this horrible side effect. It looks like that might be a possibility.

[crazydiamond]

Thanks again

I did have an EKG done and was told that there were some odd findings that did indicate something was amiss but he wanted more info and did the Holter. It was only 24 hrs though and didn't pick anything up in that time. I really wish I could remember exactly what the EKG showed but I was a bit hypomanic at the time and wasn't really focused on what was being said. The whole reason I was there was to get a murmur checked out, which I later found out from my mom I had my entire life and was told at age 3 was benign. So I wasn't having any palpitations/arrhythmia symptoms then.

I didn't start the lamicatal until a good 8 months later. I really don't think the what I was experiencing was acute anxiety, since I've had that since then and it felt different. The heart stuff is also listed as a side effect and both of my pdocs agreed that was it. But who know.

And now that I think about it, I did go in to see my doctor when all this happened. Not the ER, which I agree would probably be the best place, but an urgent care type of place.

I think I'll just wait and see what happens this go round. If it happens again and gets bad, I'll stop it until I can see a cardiologist (wait time is 4 mos or so). I'm hoping it doesn't, though. It's good news that this can probably be managed. All the other drugs I'm on don't seem to be working very well to hold my mood in place.