Anyone know about Lamictal? - Epilepsy Message Board

Seizurebgone · 04-07-2006, 07:11 PM

Hello
I'm more a less a newbie. Today is first visit to the site, but I've had seizures since 1976 when I went into eclampsia at the birth of my last child. I've been on many medicines since then....some just didn't work or I had bad and dangerous reactions and couldn't remain on them.
I've been going to a new Neurologist for the last month or so and have been put on three different new rx's. The first two had bad reactions and I couldn't remain on them. These were Trileptal and today is the last day I am to be on Keppra

On the 4th day of it, I accidently overdosed 2 hours after taking the first morning pill....I was to take them 12 hours apart. Boy! Was that a mistake!!!!

I felt like I'd been plugged into an electric socket and started having muscle cramps, one after another, constantly! The doctor started taking me off it and today is the 4th day of starting on Lamictal. I'm waiting to see what happens

Anyone familiar with it? Thanks for any reply...

bettyst · 04-08-2006, 08:29 AM

My son tried that...not good for him as it gave his really BAD headaches. Make sure you go slow when raising the dosage. I think most people do really well with it.

thewastrel · 04-13-2006, 08:40 AM

Do a Google search and you'll find all sorts of discussions of Lamictal.

Travis from MN · 04-13-2006, 08:59 AM

Lamictal can produce irritation on the skin, near the joints is common location (skin on skin??). Non tight clothing is recomended ONLY IF you notice this rash; also CALL your Dr right away. It is a red flag warning.

To help if this does come up, use neutral soaps, non perfume, natural soaps so not to irritate the skin when bathing. Also do not have the water as hot I think is another tip that may help.

I never had problems with Lamictal, so I cannot comment on the negative side of it, other than it didn't do anything for me, even on 800mg/day my levels came up that I may not be taking the med even when I was.

I sure hope you don't have to ride the rollercoaster of medications, as I call the ordeal; as long as I did to find something that works.

As for Keppra bummer to hear it caused problems. I only had problems early with the drug (prior Dr) at 4000/day (was bumped back to 3000) and NOW must be 6 years later I am lowering it Dr's orders by 375mg and wait and see for 6 months where my levels end up at.

--Travis

P.S. Find a good medical site that has the medications posted and their official "submitted" pages for the government. Read up if you think it won't make you anticipate problems or symptoms with medications. I do that when I am being changed so I know what to avoid (foods, beverages, sunlight, stress, etc), what may happen, and what is normal. That way I know what's normal and when to call the Dr if sudden problems happen.
It just depends on how you are for a personality I guess.

Some situations came up (with my Topamax) that just didn't go away, but I learned how to adapt do. More so, circumnavigate. The problem is always there, but I didn't let it be a roadblock. This issue was not brought up as a major one in the medical texts, but had been typed about on here.

thewastrel · 04-13-2006, 09:01 AM

Previously I tried to post the name of a really good site discussing AEDs from the patient's perspective. It is well written and based on scientific literature. I found it to be extremely informative. For some reason, the name came out as asterisks on the preview screen (censored?). Perhaps listing Web sites is not allowed on this board (why?). So I edited my message to 'search Google."However, on second thought, I decided to try posting my initial message agian. Readers should realize that if the name before the "org" shows up as a series of as asterisks, the *****= *********.

The site is *********.org