Lamictal = anhedonia

[conundrum]

I've been on a high dose of lamictal for awhile and wonder if it can cause flat moods or interfere with antidepressants? I thought maybe since it can stop moods from switching that it could cause anhedonia. I'm at 375. mg but taking it as an AD and it does not seem to be helping. The reason I"m wondering is because when I first tried remeron it seemed to work but then stop working and I was wondering if it could be the lamictal canceling the motivating effects of remeron.

[SashaSue]

It happens pretty often that, at first a med will work pretty well, then it will kind of fade out. That usually means you need to increase your dosage.

I haven't had the experience of lamictal worsening depression. And I can't remember having heard that complaint about it before, but I guess anything's possible. Most likely, though, it's the same depression for which you started treatment. If lamictal isn't working for you at your current dosage, I think it's probably unlikely to work any better at a higher dosage. I'd say it's time to talk to your pdoc about a med change.

[vectorgirl]

I had the same experience with Lamictal, I maxxed out at 375 I think. In the beginning at small doses it lifted my depression and stabilized my moods, but then when I'd start to get depressed again we'd just up the dosage. About last November I started feeling REALLY depressed, and that's when we got to 375 and my psychiatrist said we couldn't go higher. We tried a few antidepressants with it and the depression just got worse. I just gave up on it and went back to just Lamictal and just learned to live on a low baseline for a while. I was very even but on a very low level. I finally wound up inpatient in August and we changed my cocktail. I'm now on a low dose of a stabilizer and an AD for depression and chronic fatigue syndrome and it's working much much better. To be honest I'm still depressed a little but it's a lot better, and it's only been a week.

I think my problem was that the Lamictal dose was just way too high.I really wish that I hadn't had involuntary movements with Abilify because it didn't do that to me at all - I felt pretty darn good on Abilify.

Edited to add: I don't know that Lamictal ever worsened my depression, but I had the flat feeling and inability to feel motivation. I will say that Lamictal and Tegretol make my anxiety SHOOT throught the roof, and the first thing it hits is my body image. I start compulsively weighing because I put weight on while I'm on them despite them being more weight-neutral. I become really, really obsessive about it and can't sleep. Abilify took this away.

We've cut my Tegretol way, way down and I'm takin Wellbutrin in conjunction and feel a lot better. Still a little low but it's an improvement.But I haven't been obsessed or weighed myself in a few days, and I'd say before I easily weighed at least 4-5 times a day before.

[nalgas]

I haven't had the experience of lamictal worsening depression. And I can't remember having heard that complaint about it before, but I guess anything's possible.

Just because someone out there has to have the weird, backwards effect from every med just to prove it can happen...hi, I'm that guy. I haven't run into it happening much to other people, either, but the absolute worst my mood's ever been in my entire life was while I was on Lamictal. It was a little bit on the meh side of ok before I started it, got progressively worse as I went up on the Lamictal, and went back to normal when I stopped. Go figure.

[conundrum]

Thanks for your thoughts. I need to talk to my pdoc anyway. I never noticed any benefits from lamictal and now my cognition seems worse. It also makes me feel spacey.

[Catnapper]

Sorry you're not having a good experience with it.

It might be worth trying reducing the Lamicatal down to 200 mg (which I think is theraputic dose for mood stabilization) and adding in an anti-depressant. I've had good luck with a combo of 200mg of Lamictal and 300 mg of Wellbutrin. Hope your pdoc comes up with a good solution for you.

[AnneMarie]

Lamictal makes me stoopid at doses much higher than my current.

Lithium pairs pretty well with Lamictal. Maybe talk to your pdoc about the combo before giving up on Lamictal completely.

[conundrum]

She's having me go up to 412 mg. Weird dose but its cuz I have 150 mg pills. Hopefully I don't start forgetting words more. She says if it doesn't help at that dose its probably not worth continuing. I can't say it does much other than make me spacey. Also I'm not bipolar so its not like I NEED to be on this.

[Catnapper]

You may have bipolar II where you have cycles of depression, it's very possible that your dx changes over time. My pdoc put me on Lamicatal even though I've never been manic or even hypomanic. See my signature.

[conundrum]

Yeh I think she suspects that since I haven't responded very well to a few ADs. I can't say I feel lamictal and abilify helped. Abilify made my head feel really weird and now I think the lamictal might actually be making me sad. Normally I'm just flat. Maybe it was stopping the abilify. To me abilify felt like a cup of strong coffee not an AD feeling. More of a kick in the ass to do shit. So its weird that I'd actually feel sad after stopping it, since it didn't help my anhedonia in the first place.