lamictal vs lithium

I've usually always take a mood stabilizer, ie. Lamictal & a anti psychotic, ie. Seroquel. I take them in combination or ill be extremely manic. I've tried depakote & the only issue was weight gain & slight hair loss. I haven't noticed many side effects w/ lamictal. I think combining lamictal w/ lithium is a good decision.

I really had no other side effects from either med. Lithium is more for mania and prozac for depression. I take a Lithium/Wellbutrin combo and it is awsome for me. Controls both sides pretty darn good! It is really trial and error with any med, it might or might not effect your libido. Just have to try and see. If it does, switch again! I know tegretol kills it too. So you might do better on Lithium or Prozac.

doc feels that a mood stabiliser is needed and talked about either Lamictal or Lithium... I was scared by the sound of Lithium so went for Lamictal but now I read how many weeks it'll take to build up to a useful dose and I'm not sure I can wait that long.... any thoughts?

s the 1st line mood stabilizer, and i know that lamictal is too after it when the FDA admitted it after the lithium. I remember monkeyc (where is he now, he must be doing well otherwise he would be around ) he tried to convince me to take lithium saying that the pharm comp don't commercialize it because there is no money in it. A couple of days i almost lost conscience for 5 minutes and my parents thought i had died then i woke up then passed away again.

has anyone had stomach problems with lithium and lamictal while takimg them at the same time?.....

Hi, so they changed it? I thought that you are fine on lithium. Keep us posted. Lamictal is mostly for BP2 and I know that you are BP1. So I am interested how it will work with your highs. I am very happy with it - after about 10 weeks. Hoping it will work for you well.

I have suffered the weight gain problem but on Lithium. I love all the other results of Lithium as a mood stabilizer but it made me gain 30lbs and I could never lose the weight and I really tried with dieting and exercise when I never did either prior to being on Lithium so I know it was the cause. My current doctor has put me on Topamax to prevent the weight gain. I've only been taking it about 3 weeks now and I'm at 100mg/day. I've already lost 10lbs .

I take lamictal plus lithium. I will discuss with my doc increase lithium dose and may add another med. May add syroquil.

Hi all After a couple of weeks of reducing my 700mg daily dose, took my final Lithium tablet just over a week ago. I followed doctors orders as to the withdrawal timescale, and they said it should not cause any problems. They advised that it's just a type of salt, and is not even technically a drug, so it's not the same as withdrawing from other meds.

I am BP2 and have been on 200mgs of Lamictal for about 6 months. I tend to rapid cycle; quickly, but since Day 1 of 25 mgs, the mood swings have basically subsided. It was 180 degree turn around even at 25 mgs. However, right now, I am in the middle of nicotine withdrawals; quitting chewing and snuff. It's been rough, but I am managing. However, since I quite chewing, I have started to hit some deep-depressive episodes that last a few hours every one and a while.

I've been on Lamictal since October, and it's been a godsend to me. It is slow to titrate up to therapuedic levels - but it's done a world of good. I'm about 85-90% depression free all the time. The difference now is, I get down if something external happens, like regular folks do, everyone gets blue at times.

-- What do you think? --- Do the Lamictal first, or immediately go with the Lithium. --- Another thing I am considering is the current events in my life, loss of home, no work, no money, kids with health problems, still getting over the death of my wife 3 years ago, no friends, no social life, I have horrible self esteem, I don't want to do anything... Seems that these are having a pretty large impact on my mental state. Meds aren't going to make things all better on these fronts.

I found Lamictal the most tolerable. Lithium was highly effective of course but I had some trouble tolerating it because of cognitive confusion and weight gain but its the most effective mood stabilizer in general. As for Tegretol (the clinical name of what the other medication was) I tend to be concerned about that one because it made me psychotic and it can often lower the blood level of an antipsychotic in people, which is the reason why. However, some people find it effective.

I've relapsed again, as I have posted in the past. However, I seem to be getting better, my doc upped my Lamictal from 200mgs to 225mgs. It's been rough, over the past few weeks, I have been a human guinea pig. We've been trying various medications and they've all caused me more problems. Lithium agitated the heck out of me and Seroquel started to make me cycle harder.

I stopped Lithium and took up Lamictal as well, eventually. My reasons for stopping Lithium were complicated and foolish, but I did it on my own without consulting my doctor. I did become manic, mixed, and depressed in the few months before starting Lamictal, but that's to be expected when one just stops taking a mood stabilizer. Besides that, there were really no withdrawal or side effects that I encountered, to be honest.

Lithium will destroy your thyroid.Please keep a check on your thyroid. I really wish doctors would quit prescibing lithium. There are so many better meds for bi polar than on ethat cn be toxic and kil body parts.

Actually I remember changing from lithium to Lamictal is 1998. I was wildly manic and psychotic as well and did some destructive and self destructive stuff I'd rather not post here but it started off seeming like fun. I was on Seroquel then as well as an antipsychotic and had to raise it just to keep myself out of trouble. The problem may very well be the slow titration dose of raising Lamictal but that's FDA required for reasons discused. As regarding Lithium generally 1200 mg.

s a very unusual side effect as although Lamictal disrupted my sleep which is not uncommon lithium was actually sedating for me. See if that improves with time and keep track of it on a daily basis as well.

Hello currently I am on Lithium to control my Bi-Polar but with the ever-present kidney problems that could arise i am slightly concerned with being on it for too too long. I have trouble controlling erratic mood swings when not on medication, from super angry and aggitated to happy go lucky and wanting to socialize, was wondering if there were natural substances i could be taking or if there are weight neutral medications that won't make me balloon and eat my life away.

at first I was like, ??, because Lithium and Seroquel are two different meds, then I read that you started Lamictal. I was told that Lamictal is good for the kind of mania that causes anger, irritability, and volatile outbursts, and that it helps with lingering depression. I was on Lamictal for awhile and hated it.

It made me feel toxic, though my bloodwork was fine. I do think it healed some of my neural pathways and memory after a psychotic breakdown. I still went manic on it, so I switched to Lamictal. I know a guy who takes lithium only and is great. So great he thinks he doesn't need it anymore, about every 10 yrs. He goes back on it though. Our brains are so different.

Yes a regular blood test is needed with lithium to check Lithium levels and Thryoid function - at the start its likely to be every 4-6 weeks and later every 3 months or so depending on your maintenance and how well you maintain theraputic levels.

My daughter has hypothyroidism (diagnosed at age 8) and dx with bipolar at age 17. We were told not to take lithium because of its effect on the thyroid. She currently takes lamictal with good results.

Hi. I am bipolar and currently taking Lithium, Neurontin, Seroquel & Lamictal. I have only been on the Lamictal for about 7 weeks, starting @ 25mg & every 2 weeks adding another 25mg; thus I am currently @ 100mg per day.

I think it depends where you live, if you are in America then Lamictal is prescribed, if you live in the UK or Egypt then Tegratol is prescribed. The side effects seem to be similar and as you say the effects of tegratol are well known because it has been around for so long. Pdocs have a lot more than 3 options for mood disorder drugs, lithium is another old one, depakote is relatively new in the treatment of mood disorders, but there are so many others.

I've just come off of trying to switch to Seroquel monotherpy. I maxed out on 800mg of Seroquel before I was able to totally get off of lithium and hadn't even started to lower my Lamictal dose. I don't tolerate lithium well and side effects have gotten much worse over time. Lamictal has been okay for me as long as we watch the dose - it's very reactive to hormones and that has been a huge problem. Was soooo looking forward to only one mood stabilizer...

Lamictal vs lithium

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