Here is a great question from a reader – Amy- regarding Lamictal (Lamotrigine) side effects.
My 18 year old son with BP, anxiety, depression, OCD, ADD tried Lamictal from March to June of this year and once he got above the 100 mg. mark he developed facial tics (squeezing his eyelids shut and mouth grimaces). We went off Lamictal gradually for about one month, and the facial tics disappeared. He had about 3 weeks completely off, then on the advice of Dr. Papolos (author of The Bipolar Child), we started up again and he is on 25 mg./day. So far, so good. But that dose is really equivalent to 50 mg/day because he takes 1500 mg. Depakote as well, and Depakote intensifies the Lamictal in the blood.
Has anyone else experienced facial tics with Lamictal? Dr. Papolos as well as my son’s current pdoc had never heard of that, but a friend who researched drug interactions/side effects on line did come up with 5 cases that have been reported.
Hi Amy,
I love questions that I can answer from personal experience.
I’ve been on Lamictal since 2005. It has saved my life numerous times. I call it my wonder drug- but this doesn’t mean it’s side effect free!
You can definitely have tics with Lamictal. I have them all of the time. Sometimes they are so bad they’re comical. I can practically jerk and twitch myself out of a chair. As awful as it can be, it can really make my mom laugh!
I even have one that makes me tap my cheek a few times after my body has jerked around. That one is weird.
Lamictal is an anti- epileptic drug. It’s powerful and it affects our brains. It makes sense it would have physical side effects such as controlling our muscle movement.
Dr. Papolos was completely correct about dosage. I only have these tics when my dosage is not correct. I’m the opposite from your son. I get the tics- I call them twitching- when my dose is too low. I always know if I’ve made a mistake with my meds when I start to twitch all over the place. Messing with my meds can also cause some serious leg pain similar to restless leg syndrome.
I take 500 mg of Lamictal – 200 mg in the morning and 300mg at night. I have to put them in dated pill boxes as missing a dose is really painful for me mentally and physically.
I believe in the comprehensive treatment of bipolar disorder- I use my Health Cards and my Lamictal to have a functioning life. It’s a fact of life that these strong meds come with side effects- I try to minimize them as much as possible.
In terms of five cases being reported- this is not uncommon. Thousands and thousands can have Lamictal side effects that go unreported- as there is no place to report them unless we are in a study.
Your son is lucky to have you Amy! I hope he does really well on the new dose.
Julie
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Hi Julie, I take 200 mg. Lamictal daily in the morning and am thrilled that it is now available in generic form. My life is so great with this drug that I would pay any price for it but the lower priced generic is much appreciated. My 25 yr old son and I are both on it. I began taking it in the fall of 2006 and as I’m sure you know, my sense of reality righted itself and I gradually became more clear in my thinking. By spring of 2007 I was convinced that my son would benefit from this drug also. The changes in his life are astounding. We have both instituted our own routines for making sure we take our med on time, daily. You’re accurate when you describe a missed dose. Life goes way off course. I’m sorry that you have neck pain but am so glad that you told us that. I too have extremely bad neck pain. My chiro can’t make a dent in it. I’m sure that it won’t bother me a bit now that I know it might just be a drug side effect. I can certainly live with it. Thanks for all you share with us so that we know we are not abnormal.
I started taking Lamictal about 3 months ago. At first, I was so anxious and nervous that I thought that I wouldn’t be able to take the medication. I read the side effects which did list anxiety as one of the side effects. I started with 25mg the usual beginning dosage and didn’t experience anxiety. It wasn’t until I got to 100mg before I felt this terrible anxiety. I was determined to continue to try the med. hoping the anxiety would subside. It didn’t, so I told my pdoc about this and he told me to try 75mg or 50mg in the am and 50mg at night. It worked or maybe the med took longer for it to work for me, not sure. Anyways, I decided to continue on the 50mg once daily and found that it worked well. No side effects so far. It really has helped with my depression. I have been fighting with bipolar for a long time. I also take Trileptal which calms me and lyrica for pain. I have found that lyrica has relieved my pain and also helps with sleep and OCD or maybe it is the lamictal that has helped. I haven’t experienced as many tics while on this med. Before taking this med, I have had tics and OCD symtoms for years. Don’t get me wrong I do experience OCD and tics at times but nothing like before. I hope that these meds. continue to work because I have been through so many meds. before finding the right combination. I would like to add that the tics you described are exactly the tics that I have experienced and thought that I was the only one that has experience this. So, thankyou Amy for sharing your story it really helps to know that someone else out there knows the feeling. It can be torture at times. This is the first time that I have read a blog where someone else out there has explained exactly what I have felt. It is so nice to know that I am not alone and I am not crazy. Sincerely yours and God Bless You for sharing. Sue
Yes you can report the side effects and I highly recommend you do so. Each pharmaceutical company has a departemnt that triages Adverse Events. They are required to document each call and the pertinent details. It is important that patients report the side effects or negative reactions so that companies become aware of a particular issue with their product. Also, most safety and efficacy studies are conducted on a limited amount of patients. Many times all side effects and reactions are not discovered until there is wide spread use of the product once it is liecensed and prescribed to patients.