Lamictal for epilepsy and bipolar disorder... anyone on this and had good luck?!

Believe it or not I have had patients greatly reduce their seizures with upper cervical chiropractic. They have to be good, and the worst that can happen is that you will at least get a looser neck and relief from tension from all the seizures - best luck. Rockdoc.

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I just asked that same question about a half hour ago and I got the best response from Comebackkid.

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Mmm, good med. I take it for bipolar. The start up is looong, but worth it. This med helps me a lot with depression. Aside from the little side effects that go with increasing many meds, Lamictal has been almost side effect free for me going up to 200mg. Over 200mg I get noticeable cognitive impairment, but that's not common from what I gather. The real "side effect" that I do have is that it's too activating for me to take without something else to deal with the more manic side. That is not so uncommon. Btw, I've heard it's not bad for epilepsy.

A website on psych meds you might want to look over is http://www.crazymeds.us In addition to plain English write ups on meds, there's a talk board with posts on Lamictal you might find interesting.

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I have been on Lamictal for about 3 years now for Bipolar 2 disorder. I had a rough start to it though, I first tried it 4 years ago. I started on the smallest dose (I think 25mg) and for three days I had the worst vertigo. I literally could not stand up. So I contacted my psychiatrist and he told me this was a side effect. I tried it again after a year and I didn't have any vertigo. I did notice though that it made me a bit more irritable in the beginning. You have to gradually increase the dose on this medication because of the possibility of a rash, which I assume your psychiatrist talked ot you about. Anyway I started at the 25mg and at the end of the first week I started doing better, but then after increasing it again I became more agitated. At the end of the second week I was doing better. So to sum it up once the dosage got stabilized I was fine. I did find though that it kept me up at night, so once my dose was stable I took 200mg in the morning and 100mg at night. I adjusted to it enough that I now take 200mg morning and night and don't have any problems with it keeping me awake at night.
One of the side effects I have noticed though is that my thinking is a bit more muddled, I forget words easily at times. My reaction time is a little bit slower than it used to be, but to me these are all things I can live with due to how much the Lamictal has helped. I haven't noticed any headaches or stomach aches but each person experiences it differently.
I will say this medication has been a real godsend and it has completely been able to handle my mood disorder without an additional medication. I especially like the fact that it doesn't cause weight gain because a lot of other mood stabilizers do.

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