Side effects from lamictol

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Permalink Reply by Marie Hudson on October 15, 2009 at 11:32am

John,
My husband started on Lamictal (generic) 2 weeks ago, 25 mg at night. Tuesday (10/13) he started adding a 25 mg day pill also. So far so good, knock on wood. Steve was so blessed to come out of his AVM surgery last year about this time with very minimal problems (1/4 vision loss in each eye) but started having GM seizures about 2 months after surgery. He also has had a horrible time finding a med that agrees with him, dilantin made him very drowsy, Tegratol ER, and depakote ER made him a total sombie, he could not function on them. The neuro put him on 3000 mg Keppra in mid July and that was agreeing with him and working well until 9/29/09 when he had another GM seizure at work of all places. His neuro then added the Lamictal. From what I have read it needs to be added very slowly to reduce the "rash" that can be very bad so we are continuing to pray for (1) no more seizures (2) that this med will agree with him when he gets to the full dose of 100 mg. After 2 weeks on 1 day, 1 night pill, he adds another 25 mg night pill for 2 weeks then adds another 25 mg day pill so..............
I hope it does well for you.
Marie

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Permalink Reply by John Scragg on October 15, 2009 at 1:31pm

I had to do the same, slowly increase the dose. I have been on the full dose for 2 weeks now. I was put on it for my partial seizures, they have lessened in frequency but the odd one still happens though this is usually when I am very tired, so so far so good. Hope they work out for your husband

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Permalink Reply by Marie Hudson on October 15, 2009 at 2:33pm

John,
Do you loose consciousness with your seizures? They believe Steve's start out as partial seizures (in the area where the AVM was, in his case left temporal) then go into generalized thus the Grand Mal type and he does loose consciousness. How much is full dose for you? Are you having any side effects?

Thanks! Marie

John Scragg said:

I had to do the same, slowly increase the dose. I have been on the full dose for 2 weeks now. I was put on it for my partial seizures, they have lessened in frequency but the odd one still happens though this is usually when I am very tired, so so far so good. Hope they work out for your husband

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Permalink Reply by John Scragg on October 16, 2009 at 10:51am

My AVM is in the right front temporal, I have not lost conciousness, but have felt pretty dizzy. Mostly my seizures appear as twitches in arms and legs and tightening and wriggling sensations in my scalp, sometimes eye twitches too ( these drive me crazy ). I cant remember right now what the milligram of my tablets are ( I am on the computer at work ) but I am taking 2 full tablets a day one in the morning and another in the evening, I will find out the exact dozage and let you know, I am thinking they are 50`s but might be wrong. because they had me take 1/2 a tablet once a day for 5 days, then 1/2 twice a day for 5 days, then 1/2 in the morning and a full one at night for 5 days, then onto whole ones. I have not noticed any side effects so far.

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Permalink Reply by avmgirl on October 16, 2009 at 11:30pm

Hi John, I've been taking phenobarbitol and Tegretol XR for the past 27 years. I've been very controlled on these 2 medications for years - probably a seizure or 2 every 5 yrs or so. Last year I was weaned off of Tegretol XR and ramped up on Lamictal. No, I didn't get the rash. Because my white blood cell count had been declining over a 10-yr. period, my dr. thought there was a small chance that it could be a Tegretol side effect and he recommended Lamictal as the replacement. When I first started Lamictal, I felt like I was just wide awake. Slept alot less, very alert. It was great! That side effect wore off after about a month. A few months later, I had a break-through focal seizure. My Lamictal dosage was upped slightly to 200 mg AM and 200 mg PM after that. No seizures since. No bad side effects at all. I have nothing negative to report on Lamictal. It's definitely working for me since I have been under some stress this year (caring for my dad who has had 2 strokes this year) and have not cracked yet. I hope you have good luck with this drug.

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Permalink Reply by John Scragg on October 19, 2009 at 7:38am

Marie

I remembered to find out what my dosage is for the Lamictal. I take 100mg twice a day.

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Permalink Reply by Marie Hudson on October 19, 2009 at 11:49am

Thanks John, Steve will be on 100 mg daily (50 mg twice/day, when he's weened on completely) and still on the 3000 mg keppra also. I pray this combo will work for him. We go back to the University of VA next Tuesday to the seizure center, so hopefully they will have some more ideas. He just can't have any more of those evil GM seizures, it seems to take him so long to "recover" from them each time. He had been 17 weeks since the last and I could see such a BIG improvement in his short term memory and name recalling, he didn't have to "search" as hard as he does after one of the monsters. He is actually going to talk to the neuro about seizure surgery so........ scares the heck out of me, but if it could help him, I'll be with him 110% as we did during the AVM surgery. Will let you know.
Marie

John Scragg said:

Marie

I remembered to find out what my dosage is for the Lamictal. I take 100mg twice a day.

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