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Lamictal side effects.
Mon, 02/27/2006 - 20:49Topic: Medication Issues
Hi,
I am really in trouble regarding the medicine. I took Depakote ER for my generalized seizures and been controled by it for about 5 years. In March 2004 I had a child who was born with Fetal Valproate Syndrome-syndrome caused by Depakote. I can't describe to you how painful it is to realize how much damage I did to my own son! It took me about 6 months to find out what was wrong with him because all doctors who saw him couldn't help me. Right now, thank God, he is a very active, happy boy, running and destroying everything around:)). But he underwent two surgeries and maybe one more is coming.
Now, we decided to try to have another child and I started to change medication on something safer. There is no safe medication but new generation AEDs sound more promising. At first, doctor put me on Keppra 500mg twice a day. On the fourth day after completely stop taking Depakote and being only on Keppra I had a seizure, first in 5 years. I scared my older son who is 11 years old now a lot. He helped me during my seizure because my husband was at work at that time. My youngest was OK, he didn't understand anything. Doctor increased my dosage to 2000mg a day. But my mood is very affected by it. I am very snappy, angry and tired all the time. Plus there is not enough data regarding pregnancy and Keppra. After talking to my doctor again we decided to switch to Lamictal. There is some data regarding pregnancy on this medication. It's my second week on Keppra 2000mg and Lamictal 50 gr. It's going to take overall 8 weeks to do a complete swith. The dosage of Lamictal at the end will be 400 mg. But since yesterday, I started to have funny taste when I eat-everything tastes bitter. Plus I don't want to eat at all, except bread. I started to wonder, can it be an effect of Lamictal and will it go away? I am lost completely. Did anyone experience anything like that and what did you do? Sorry for such a long blog! Thank you very much for any response!
Natalya.
Comments
Re: Lamictal side effects.
Submitted by Karenina on Tue, 2006-03-14 - 20:35
Natalya –
I just starting taking Lamictal in October 2005 (just diagnosed then) and struggled with some pretty unpleasant side effects that don’t sound so different from what you described. When increasing my dosage, I also lose my appetite (actually, I feel nauseous) and get a bad taste in mouth. Aside from that, I get very tired and dizzy. The good news is that I've learned that after the first week or so after increasing the dosage, my body eventually returns to “normal†and I crave food again. Hope this helps!
Re: Re: Lamictal side effects.
Submitted by scorpio on Wed, 2006-03-15 - 04:30
Lamictal is a drug that needs to be introduced slowly, otherwise the side-effects can be worse than they otherwise might be. As to their nature, dizziness is not uncommon, though it is dosage related (400mg/d made me dizzy sometimes, in certain circumstances - flickering lights for instance. The 200mg I take now does not - so far anyway).
The dizziness also started if I turned my neck too far round, as when talking to someone beside me - embarassing as it looked as if one was drunk. I found if I turned the whole body round to do so this did not happen. Maybe some nerve was pinched or similar.
Try it and see what happens.
Chris
Re: Re: Lamictal side effects.
Submitted by natalya on Sun, 2006-03-05 - 13:44
Colina, It's a good idea! I always take my medications with hot tea which I like to drink. But I don't put any sugar in my tea and the aftertaste from Lamictal just awful! I will try to take it with milk. Thanks, Natalya.