enduranceessential Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 Hello all...well, finally made it to 200 mg lamotrigine. Yesterday was day 3, and I understand the insomnia I had last night is par for the course.I'm recalling from good people on here that it will be two or three weeks before I notice a change in the depression from 150 mg...does that sound right? Also, I threw something yesterday when pissed...this is not like me.Any thoughts/experiences with the 200 mg dose would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncomfortable thoughts Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 (edited) I hate to bring this up but it's what I'm using to stay at least for now on my 100mg/day of lamotrigine since I still have periods of headaches that I previously didn't and difficult on starting sleeping since I started my treatment with lamotrigine.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18271912My treatment with lamotrigine completed four months and last month my pdoc wanted me to up 25mg because my complains of bipolar depression symptoms, I refused based on this study and my side effects, more because my side effects because there are not only people here but around the internet that I heard having benefits on depression when the lamotrigine dosage increased and or they found the what so called target dose. Until my sleep pattern comes back to a routine that I feel safe on I'm not upping it on the pretext of easing depressive symptoms. Edited October 5, 2015 by uncomfortable thoughts 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crtclms Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 Several people here with cyclical depression have found Lamictal helpful. Some people consider cyclical depression a soft sign of bipolar illness.The study you cite is and 8 year-old cross-sectional study, and is looking at even older studies. Cross-sectional studies often have lots of flaws. Here's another paper written the year afterwards that contradicts your article, and included a double blind study. That was still a long time ago, but I can't find targeted studies from later than that, other than those that say it is good for treatment of bipolar. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncomfortable thoughts Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 (edited) Several people here with cyclical depression have found Lamictal helpful. Some people consider cyclical depression a soft sign of bipolar illness.The study you cite is and 8 year-old cross-sectional study, and is looking at even older studies. Cross-sectional studies often have lots of flaws. Here's another paper written the year afterwards that contradicts your article, and included a double blind study. That was still a long time ago, but I can't find targeted studies from later than that, other than those that say it is good for treatment of bipolar.Both are from the same year and both are double-blind.What I posted does not contradicts your article since mine is a mono therapy study of lamotrigine in a five double-blind placebo controlled trial and yours is a lithium-lamotrigine double-blind placebo controlled study.Conclusion of your study has "add-on"." effective and safe as add-on treatment to lithium in the acute treatment of bipolar depression."Meaning both articles can't prove the effectivity of lamotrigine by itself in acute bipolar depression.I never found a study that shows that lamotrigine besides in a combination is good for acute bipolar depression or acute depression, only like you said it's good for treatment of bipolar and from my researches I saw how it's good for not relapsing into a depressive state more than it could prevent a manic episode, that's probably why you don't see many people with bipolar disorder on a monotherapy of lamotrigine.I'm on a lamotrigine monotherapy, I'm not closed to lamotrigine can help with depression but I just stated until my side effects are more manageable I'm not whiling to up the dosage. Edited October 5, 2015 by uncomfortable thoughts 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt07 Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 Again, not bipolar, but I found that when I hit my therapeutic dose there was no question that it was working. Trouble is that I went past that sweet spot and never did find it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crtclms Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 Uncomfortable, I see my errors, but I am still really surprised. So this is only if you are on it solely? Lamictal is supposed to be better for depression than mania. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncomfortable thoughts Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 Uncomfortable, I see my errors, but I am still really surprised. So this is only if you are on it solely? Lamictal is supposed to be better for depression than mania.Until now, for what I know, lamotrigine taken solely is not proven to help with acute depression and it only helps preventing a new depressive episode, as for mania, it's shown to delay an episode and prevent it from happening, lamotrigine isn't used on acute mania too, so it's pretty much a drug for someone who is already stable.Lamotrigine efficacy for depression in combination with another medication are the only positive results. But I can be wrong, still, never found anything medical saying the opposite, if someone has another information I would be glad for reading since I'm on lamotrigine and intend to be on it for as long as it's working for me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjs190 Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 I always thought Lamictal wasn't useful in acute bipolar depression because of the 5-6 week taper one must go through before they even hit a therapeutic dosage, and then one would still have to wait for the effects of the drug to mitigate the depression. In regards to adjusting the dose once you're already at a therapeutic dose; thats a horse of a different color. Making small adjustments up or down to find a sweet spot is much more effective, from what I know and see in practice. Just my two cents.I see not upping the dosage because of side effects as very legitimate, though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enduranceessential Posted October 25, 2015 Author Share Posted October 25, 2015 Sounds right on to me. I can tell the depression has improved, but it is a very lengthy process.I will look forward to less frequent and numerous depressive episodes while riding this one out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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