side effects

lamictal, "painful rash on her body. When she went to the hospital, the doctors diagnosed her with Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS)...scariest part is that it burned me from the inside out – so all the burns on the outside were because my insides were so burned that it started to manifest on the outside of my skin. The rash had started to take over my body. It was like my arm had been cooked...blisters pop up in my eyes." https://www.financialexpress.com/healthcare/pharma-healthcare/woman-gets-burned-from-the-inside-after-taking-depression-medicine-know-all-about-this-bizarre-side-effect/3480746/
“The side effects were overwhelming...Beyond weight gain...paroxetine, fluoxetine, and fluvoxamine can cause irreversible damage to the kidney, while atypical antidepressants such as nefazodone, trazodone, duloxetine, bupropion, and sertraline may harm the liver. These medications have also proved to be fatal." https://www.nationthailand.com/health-wellness/40037855

psychologists

"Commentary: Letting psychologists prescribe meds is not the way to expand mental health services...Enhancing access to psychotherapy and other psychological services would better address mental health needs than letting psychologists prescribe...New York has many prescribers already: 4,090 psychiatrists, 58,680 non-psychiatric physicians, 20,150 nurse practitioners and other APRNs, and 14,790 physician assistants. All 97,710 of them can prescribe...Serious consequences can result from prescribing errors and medication side effects." https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/letting-psychologists-prescribe-wrong-approach-19442129.php

TV

X-Men '97 season 1 episode 9 "Not a lunatic. Merely a man trying to survive in a world that has proven his worst fears true." https://youtu.be/mp1Pax-QHlA

seizures

deadly "magnetic seizure therapy" requires "general anesthesia."

forensic

"in the criminal justice system across the state, essentially bringing Assisted Outpatient Treatment-type services that exist in Albuquerque to the rest of New Mexico." July it will become texas-ico. https://www.yahoo.com/news/mexico-considering-system-dealing-mentally-210816801.html

check your sources

"journalistic malpractice to not term STARD findings as—at the very least—controversial. Even psychiatrists within establishment psychiatry are questioning STARD’s validity, with some psychiatrists demanding its retraction. Other researchers have called STAR*D scientific misconduct, and one investigative journalist has termed it as fraud." https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/05/08/new-york-times-sinks-to-new-low-in-its-psychiatric-drug-coverage/

overcrowding

Kyrgyzstan "National Center for the Prevention of Torture visits Republican Center for Psychiatry and Narcology." https://m.akipress.com/news:772609:National_Center_for_the_Prevention_of_Torture_visits_Republican_Center_for_Psychiatry_and_Narcology/

whistleblowing

"Why whistleblowers in medicine are so few and justice for the harmed so elusive." https://archive.is/NrNcz

Islamophobia, racism

"Minority Fellowship Program – $15.4 million – This program aims to reduce health disparities and improve behavioral health care outcomes for racial and ethnic populations. The program also seeks to train and better prepare behavioral health practitioners to more effectively treat and serve people of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds." https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/05/08/biden-harris-administration-announces-46-8-million-behavioral-health-funding-opportunities-advance-president-bidens-unity-agenda-may-mental-health-awareness-month.html Muslims never believed in mental intoxicants.

guardianship

"Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05) today joined Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, in introducing the Alternatives to Guardianship Education Act to improve the awareness of" supported decision making. https://scanlon.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=658

I (27F) started lamictal just under a year ago. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was immediately given the drug. no side effects on 100 mg. Went through a really long depressive episode…we’re talking months. My psychiatrist upped my meds to 150mg and everything went downhill from there..fast. I immediately started having a runny nose and sneezing every morning and night. Called the psych. She said take benadryl bc that’s not a symptom of an allergic reaction???? WHAT. but ok whatever. take the Benadryl damn near every day. then i notice small raised red patches on random parts of my body. cool. no itching…YET. i had no idea the hell i was in for with the itching i developed insomnia because the rashes were so frequent and i also had shortness of breath. One day a rash was starting. Typical bubbly bumps. Ok…this one was particularly annoying bc it was on my breasts (which has happened before) and i knew that when it was on my breasts i was gonna have trouble breathing eventually so i popped a benny. I laid down in bed and my throat started itching. i started to itch my throat with my tongue. then my throat closed. i got up and frantically was trying to take in air. talking was hardly possible. i told my bf to call 911 then started puking and blacking in and out but started breathing again bc luckily i decided to take the benadryl..JUST IN TIME. my entire back was covered in hives. went to hospital they sent me home w a breathing treatment an epi pen and a spacer and inhaler. cool. weeks later a doctor visit and a new allergy med, im still getting rashes that aren’t itchy but raised, and still wheezing/having trouble breathing daily even with the use of the inhaler. nobody has explicitly told me i have sjs but i obviously have sjs. now im just waiting for that one rash to send me to the burn unit. im scared for my life every single day. it feels like im living through an asthma attack every hour. just thought id share as a warning before you decide if this med is right for you. i wish everyone here the best and i hope it works out for you 🫶🏼

Hi everyone, I'm currently experiencing a non itchy rash on my neck, chest, shoulders, arms and parts of my legs. I also have swollen lymph nodes on both sides of my neck. No fever and no sore throat at all.
Some backstory: I currently have been on Adderrall for over a month and I was also prescribed lamictal for bipolar a few weeks ago. To make sure I don't have SJS, we started on 25 mg every day for two weeks and as of yesterday I upped the dosage per my phsychiatrist plan to 50 mg ( which I'm supposed to take for two weeks, then well up it again by 25 mg)
Last Wednesday, while walking on my walking pad at work (which I've been doing for several months now with no issues) I noticed my feet started developing what looked like either a rash or bug bites (I'll add a picture) the spots on my feet were VERY itchy, and I have pretty bad but not unmanageable hystamine reactions in general (huge swelling when I get bit by bugs, I'm allergic to cat dander and I have two cats). I have a topical antihistamine cream I put on my feet once I noticed the spots and tried to not walk on my walking pad on Thursday to not make things worse. On Thursday I did go to a little trail nearby with a friend and he ran while I roller skates. Halfway through our skate, I took a little fall on my thigh and decided to take my skates off and walk in my socks the rest of the way back (mind you, my feet were already itchy with spots before I went to this trail). After that, on Friday near the end of my shift, I noticed that my lymphnode on the left side of my neck felt a bit tender. I also took a shower after this and noticed my knee had some rash like red spots on it (these were not itchy or painful). The next day (last Saturday) I went to the movies with my family and when I went to the bathroom I noticed I was developing some kind of rash on my chest, neck and shoulders. These ones aren't itchy though, they just feel kinda hot? At this point my left neck lymohnode was hurting more, more swollen and it was starting to make my head hurt and turning and swallowing wasn't pleasant. I called the on call doctor at my PCP and I was advised to take Pepcid and Benadryl (and I took some ibuprofen). The ibuprofen helped with the neck and head pain but when I woke up the next day, I could still see the rash and I couldn't really tell if it was worse or pretty much the same. I kept taking Benadryl, Pepcid and ibuprofen and went to the zoo with my family (they were only in town for the weekend) and while I was out with them, I noticed the same kind of red spots on my arms now. I'm not sure if I overlooked those previously or if they were a new development.
This morning I went in to my PCP and saw a nurse practitioner. She tested me for strep (even though I have no fever, no sore throat and she didn't notice any white spots on my throat, just that it looked red) and it came back negative, but she wasn't convinced, so she put in an order for me to start taking Amoxicillin just in case. I also have been keeping my psychiatrist in the know of everything that's been happening (starting with my feet and she told me it didn't look or sound like SJS) and we decided today that I'll keep taking all my meds right now and if nothing clears up after taking the Amoxicillin that we'll try tritating the Lamictal. To see if it is some reaction to the meds.
The thing is, before I started taking Lamictal, I had a genetic testing done via mouth swab to see what medications would badly interact with me and lamictal was the best one for my genetic makeup for a mood stabilizer. So I really don't think it's SJS but if course I'm worried it could be.
I'll also mention I'm under A LOT of stress right now. My husband and I are in the process of closing on our first house, we put our offer in "as is" and found out during the inspection that there's a decent amount of ungrounded outlets and there's knob and tube wiring in the house so we're mentally preparing for a full rewire ideally before we move in. On top of that, I'm feeling stressed about my medical insurance and trying to understand where I am with paying my deductible has been a frustrating process. On top of THAT, my work has been extremely stressful, I feel over utilized on my team, I worked 7 hours of OT last week and getting a lot of pushback emails from agents.
It could be stress, it could be allergies, it could be SJS and it could still be strep.
I left my appointment feeling frustrated and wish I could at least eliminate some of the possibilities. Pictures of feet, knees chest and neck and arm: https://imgur.com/gallery/N0zAyIG

Hi Everyone,
​
This is my first time writing on Reddit although I spend hours and hours on OCD forum to look out my cause.
​
Ever since I was little, I was an anxious person believing in lot of superstition. I would be sharpening pencil with my nails, smelling chairs at school, washing hands numerous times, and repetitively counting. I would have thoughts like if i don't touch my computer screen, something bad is going to happen with my family and so forth.
​
When I go to boot camp, I would cry because I would get bad social anxiety and hide to restroom due to racing thoughts in my head. Same with talking to someone I am interested in. I would have racing thoughts as if I am going to go crazy. But I thought this is normal and I will get mature as I get older. I thought as an adult, everything will be different.
​
Around my senior year of high school, I was on a field trip and I felt like nerve on back of my left head just snapped. I felt little electrocuted. I had CT Scan on my brain and blood test and zero issue. Ever since then, I had severe OCD thoughts about something wrong to my brain happened. I had huge spike in anxiety and since then, I had hard time listening, talking, writing, and etc. I felt like I went completely retarded. My memory has gone downhill. I went to psychiatrist and have tried couple medications that didn't work (Lithium, Risperidone, Abilify, Xanax, Klonopin, Zyprexa, adderall and Lamotrigine). I was always a black and white type of a person, have a very stubborn attitude. It if doesn't work in few days to a month, I am moving on. Looking back, I think that was a very bad decision. Surprisingly, xanax and klonopin didn't help me at all. I was on adderall for 2 months and although it was good initially, I felt the effect has gone down. Risperidone for 2 months was awful. I felt lazy and unmotivated. Abilify for 3 weeks. I should've given some time. Same with Lamictal. I was only on it for 7 days. I got scared about SJS although I didn't have one. I think I have always been a cautious person and freaking out about what if something bad happens to me. Same reason why I was scared with antipsychotics like Abilify. During this time, I would spend hours and hours looking for medications, side effect, and mental disorders because I was so anxious and felt desperate to find a cure. I would spend 4-5 hours googling and looking at same information over and over. I know this obsession isn't good and I know it made me worse but I felt like it's something I had to do it.
​
First semester of college, I had to drop out because of spike in anxiety, ocd, depression, feeling retarded, and intrusive thoughts. Back home, I was prescribed Zoloft at 100mg. The initial side effect was awful. Lot of gas and diarrhea and sweating and I had to use restroom 7 times a day. 3 weeks in, my intrusive thoughts stopped and I felt euphoric. From then on, I became pretty confident in social situations, remember things well, and write, talk, and listen well. It's like my brain cognition has elevated. There were some major side effects such as diarrhea, oily stool, smelly gas, extreme sweating, delayed ejaculation, and jaw clenching. If I eat fresh ingredients, such as blue berry, lettuce, and banana, I would have diarrhea right away and food came out undigested. Sometimes, stool would be black. I always had sharp pain in my stomach. So in college, I would be eating lot of artificial food to not have straight up diarrhea. I endured the side effect because of how much medication helps me. So with this medication, I was able to graduate with bachelor's and master's degree. I even got a good job.
​
​
After taking med for about 8 years, 3rd year at a job, I realized my symptoms were getting worse. I was having extreme wrist pain and back pain. I thought it was a workout issue but it wasn't. Stomach was getting worse and I felt so emotionally numb. I really thought I don't want to live like this and I can live fine without med with healthy diet, positivity, and exercise.
​
Oh boy was I wrong. 3 months later, everything fell apart. I would cry everyday at work. Like I have gone retarded and all my confidence and cognition went away. Intrusive thoughts came back and I had crazy anxiety spike.
​
So after a month, I put on different antidepressant. First was prozac for a month but it gave me diarrhea, stomach pain, and joint pain. Then tried Lexapro. It took a month to settle and the side effect wasn't as bad as Zoloft. I had back pain, stomach pain, and constipation, but it wasn't as bad. I was calmer and I think my memory was much better compared to Zoloft. I was promoted 2 times and I was very happy with my life. 3 years later, my stomach, joints, and teeth have gotten really bad. There was a point in time I was unable to walk for 3 months due to sharp pain in my left knee. I got MRI and no issue. I had to stop playing tennis, basketball, and lifting weights because my wrists and elbows were hurting so much. Lot of my teeth have been chipped and I had to put crown on some of my teeth due to biting to hard. I got on night guard but wasn't helping. I had to urinate frequently due to back pain and stomach pain. Also, it was really hard for me to sleep and I would wake up in the middle of the night with racing thoughts. I was drenched in sweat most times. I was tired majority of the time and had to rely on coffee. I flew over to Taiwan one time and I felt like my stomach is getting torn up. Even in Taiwan, I was unable to eat lot of things because of pain in stomach. Flight back was the worst, I had a sharp pain on my stomach as if needle is poking at it. I realized this is where I need to stop.
Quitting was the worst. It took 6 months for my stomach to recover. Surprisingly, I no longer had back and joint pain after I quit. After 3 months of quitting, all the symptoms came back. So I tried other approaches. OCD ERP with specialist, healthy diet, exercise, meditation, supplements, and so forth. I was told I have MTHFR gene and my bloodwork showed I was high in homocystein and b6. I used deplin and b12 for about a month and a half and had no result. Before I quit, I had really bad food poisoning and racing thoughts just wouldn't go way. I also tried magadosing inositol, NAC, multivitamin, omega 3, st.john's worth,and cbd, and probiotic and none helped or had terrible stomach pain.
​
I met up with another psychiatrist and he initially prescribed Luvox and Paxil. With Luvox, I couldn't last a day due to nausea and stomach pain and couldn't last a week with Paxil due to stomach pain. It feels like my stomach has gotten really bad from Zoloft and Lexapro. He then prescribed me Trazodone, Lunesta, and Trileptal. Trazodone and Lunesta didn't help for sleep and gave me horrible stomachache. It really seems like anything related to serotonin (inositol, cbd, Trazodone, st. john's wort, buspirone) gives me bad stomachache. I think I am very traumatized from the experience. With Trileptal, everything in my eyes looked orange. I was on it for 3 weeks. I had a crash at work because I wasn't driving cautiously. I got impatient and quit.
​
I got on wellbutrin and it made my anxiety spike. With effexor, I couldn't sleep for 2 days and had stomach pain. Viibryd gave me diarrhea for 4 hours straight. I thought I was shitting blood. Trintellix, I split into a quarter and still had stomach problem. With Pristiq, I noticed quick improvement initially but 1 week in, I had terrible diarrhea and stomach problem. My stomach was making so much noise. Anafranil was giving me nausea and stomach pain with the smallest dosage. I had tried ketamine and it was the worst experience I've ever had. I felt disassociated and hated the feeling of not being in control. I thought I died but the nurse woke me up. She said I fell on the chair.
I really thought there was something wrong with my stomach so I had colonoscopy done. There was no issue. Just mild acid reflux and inactive colon lining. I did have SIBO so I took antibiotic for 2 weeks. I didn't notice any difference.
​
I switched my psychiatrist. He is supposed to be the best in town.
We tried low dose of Lexapro. Cut 5mg into a quarter. My stomach was hurting a lot and I had diarrhea.
We tried low does of Sertraline. When I tried 12.5mg for the first time, my intrusive thoughts have stopped and I felt euphoric but I had horrible stomachache. The next day, my wrist started hurting, my body felt cold, and goosebumps everywhere. My psychiatrist thinks I might have serotonin syndrome. We used liquid version. At 0.2mL (4mg), I still had issue. I was able to tolerate 0.1ML (2mg) but at this point we both think that it's low and I didn't want to wait a month.
From then on, we tried many different things, Auvelity (increased paranoia, can't focus), memantine (increased paranoia, can't focus), Vyvanse (too stimulating), Propranolol (it helps a little bit with calming my heart. use as needed), EMSAM (stomach pain, anger, irritability, can't focus).
​
My life has become a total mess. Even at work I google and look for my symptoms 4 hours a day knowing it's inappropriate. I avoid making eye contacts will people and only say yes or no. I have to ask people to repeat things over and over. I have hard time locating notes I made and even harder time understanding what I wrote. I forget what day it is today. And time just moves so quick. After I close my eyes, it feels like I am ready to go to sleep. I have no self awareness. My memory has fallen apart. I even forget names of people I am close with .I enter in women's restroom by mistake and spilling water I am holding without thought. I would miss free way exit and having to spend an hour going back. Back of my left head hurt and I am quite suicidal. I look at myself in the mirror and I look unfamiliar. Even my brother looks unfamiliar. I take a walk and looking at trees make me dizzy. I think I am in a depersonalized state and I am always on edge that something bad is going to happen. I am stuck on patterns and get paranoid. At night, my body heats up and I get racing mind. I really feel like I am going crazy and I just want to sleep for the rest of my life. Sleep has never been good with imsomnia. I always feel better at night and feel terrible in the morning.
​
My life is in so much pain. With SSRI, my mind is in good place but my body is getting fallen apart. Without it, my body is better but my mind is suffering. And SSRI has made my body worse than ever before. Like my sensitivity to serotonin has gotten crazy. All psychiatrists tell me I know too much and I have sever anxiety and ocd. Just wondering what should I do at this point.
​
My psychiatrist prescribed me Ativan for short term relief this week. He wants Auvelity and EMSAM completely out of my system. He recommended me Latuda. I was always scared of antipsychotic leading dementia and brain decline but I don't care at this point. Maybe I can augment with low dose of sertraline at 2mg.
​
I am on my 4th week on TMS and I am not feeling any good result.
​
Both my brother and counselor think I should try therapy again but I was always pessimistic about it. I already failed numerous times and my stubborn negative attitude just doesn't believe it. I really do think that I have a chemical balance issue.
​
If anyone was able to read this all the way down, thank you and I hope everyone is safe and well. I am scared of dying and even if I am on verge of going crazy, I will continue to live on.
​
If anyone has a recommendation, please let me know. God bless

So I've been on Lamictal (Lamotrigine specifically) for just over six months, up to 150 mg, and it's stabilized me really well compared to how I was prior to it. I am wondering if anyone has experience taking it with birth control however.
Birth control does interact with Lamictal, and can make the effects of it reduce, but doesn't count as titrating down, exactly (I spoke to both my OBGYN and my psychiatrist about it, but neither could give concrete answers.)
I was taking the pill for about three weeks before I developed a rash on my breast, which I immediately went to the ER for. They confirmed it wasn't SJS, but likely something hormonal, eventually evolving into weird blisters that have since begun to heal. The actual issue cropped up a few days later.
I started having withdrawals that I can only compare to those when I've gotten off benzos, but faster and more intense. Tremors, nausea, panic attacks, paranoia, chills, body aches, disorientation - the whole deal. My doctor freaked out, instructed me to stop the birth control, and I stopped. Two days later, I'm back to being fine.
Has anyone successfully managed to be on the pill and taken Lamictal? It's not for contraceptive purposes, but for debilitating cramps, which worsen my fibromyalgia, and therefore make working and existing in general rather painful.
I'll be upping my dose over the next few weeks to 200 mg, but I'm hoping I can at some point get back on the pill. Is anyone taking both things? If so, what brand? I was taking Nikki prior to my little catastrophe. Any advice or experience from others would be greatly appreciated!
TL;DR: Nikki (birth control) and Lamotrigine were disastrous, I'm trying to see if anyone has had better luck combining a contraceptive pill with Lamictal.

I started lamictal a week ago and got the dreaded "rash". My psych had told me to watch for any skin changes but didn't mention any other symptoms.
I'm pretty sure I had a Stevens-Johnson syndrome type reaction: first I had flu like symptoms, then a persistent sore throat that felt unusual along with a stuffy nose. My snot was really thick, and some chunks felt...fleshy. Thursday night, an hour or two after I took my dose I got a burning sensation over a lot of my skin, and a couple spots on my thumb. I was so sleep deprived (bipolar) and it was vague enough that I decided to sleep on it. Later that day my lips peeled (they weren't dry). Went to the ER, they dismissed me saying I had nothing to worry about. I waited a day to make sure it didn't get worse, then took my next dose on Saturday.
Hours later my hands and feet were burning, with a deep red color and some purple areas. I get my ass to the ER, this time a different one. As I'm waiting for admission the rash gets worse, and some little skin spots I can only describe as "loose" show up. Only a few small ones. Mainly though, I'm focusing on the hellish burning sensation.
They take me to an exam room, not a bed, and make me wait for ~1 hour between short visits from the PA who says "yeah this doesn't look like anything bad". Meanwhile I feel like my hands and feet are being slow roasted. I start to feel generally ill, and my face starts feeling warm. After about four hours the actual doc comes in, looks at me for like 5 seconds, and says "you're fine, go home and keep taking your meds". I'm feeling like I've lost my mind at this point.
I just knew something was wrong, deep down, so I managed to get a weekend appointment with my PCP's office. The burning reaction has died down by now, but still she takes one look and tells me absolutely do NOT take the lamictal, stop it and talk to your psychiatrist ASAP. Since it had improved a bit over the day she said I could go home, but watch it closely and if anything changes go to the ER.
Sorry for the rant, I'm just pissed about two ER experiences where they dismissed my concerns entirely.
I trust the last doctor, but it's also a rare condition and it's not her specialty. I'm still anxious that it looking "better" is actually a sign of something worse, e.g. it stopped burning because skin has died and it will start blistering and falling off soon.
I'll add photos in a comment. Does anything look alarming, or can I continue to monitor it at home?
It's tough, I know I may be freaking out over nothing. The nature of mental illness is that I may literally be seeing signs that aren't there. However a non-ER doc confirmed that there's something, she's just not worried. She affirmed that it could be the same underlying reaction as SJS, just way milder.

Hi everyone!
So I’m on my second day of taking 25mg of Lamictal, with the goal of getting up to 200mg, doubling dosage every 2 weeks. My first day was yesterday (Saturday) and I felt this comforting sort of apathy which was nice, Although towards the night, I became a-bit anxious and paranoid but that’s a given since I have anxiety and CPTSD along with some other disorders. For some reason I started doom scrolling about SJS and Lamictal. I’m a generally anxious person and (sort of) a hypochondriac. Is there anything I can do to maybe prevent this from happening?

I’ve been taking lamictal for about 2 months now. I was on 25 for 2 weeks, than 50 for 2 weeks, now i’m on 100 for the past 3 weeks and about to start 150. i’ve always had pretty sensitive skin that itches sometimes but recently my skin has been so debilitatingly itchy to the point i’m making myself bleed from scratching so much. I also have been breaking out in bumpy rashes occasionally but it doesn’t look like SJS nor does my psychiatrist think it is. Does anyone else experience this or know why this is happening?

Has anyone had experience with taking a few days off the birth control pill to bleed, whilst also taking Lamictal (which will increase in the bloodstream if you remove birth control) for seizures triggered by periods?
I am trying to figure out how to do this after bleeding continuously for 13 weeks on a new bc and simultaneously titrating up Lamictal.
My first idea is to do the two weeks at the new dose of Lamictal, then take the break from bc so that any increase in the Lamictal isn’t a shock to my body (with the risk of SJS). Then after the bc break maybe wait a week before increasing my dose again. Don’t have another neurologist appointment for 3 months and he didn’t give any instruction on how to do this, neither did my GP.

In the past, I have been prescribed Lamictal or generic lamotrigine. It helped so much with mood regulation but eventually I developed a rash. Since lamotrigine has a black box warning for skin rash, SJS, & TEN, the psychiatrist I was seeing at the time discontinued that med for me. This occurred almost 10 years ago.
The psychiatrist I got established with this past year asked what my skin rash was like years back during an appointment when we were exploring medication options. I told him I don’t remember what the rash looked like or how bad it was. He said let’s try starting it again with a slow titration & see if rash will re-occur. I was reluctant but agreed to give it a shot.
25mg was fine. 50mg my neck developed a rash. 75mg the rash spread from my neck to my chest & arms. 100mg my whole body developed a red hot itchy rash.
I informed my psychiatrist of the side effects. He advised me to discontinue lamotrigine until my body was fully cleared of the rash, then to restart it & keep the dose at 25mg. I was furious at this recommendation considering the black box warning & that there is no way to predict when a rash will ever turn into TEN or SJS. I even questioned if 25mg can even have any therapeutic effect in stabilizing mood. He said yes.
Despite my personal feelings, I still followed his instructions & restarted at 25mg once my rash was cleared up. I am currently still on a 25mg daily dose.
Since then, I have learned that one of the inactive ingredients in lamotrigine is lactose. I have lactose intolerance. So now I suspect perhaps my rash on higher doses might be due to the lactose in the pill formulation.
What I want to know is if there is a lactose-free formulation of lamotrigine on the market? If so, what is the name for that Rx? I wonder if I can take a higher dose successfully if there is a lactose-free formula available & would really like to try that if possible.

Hello all — this is my first post in this subreddit, so I’ll provide a little back story in regard to my diagnosis and subsequent treatment with Bipolar II.
Around 2016, I began to experience intense mood-swings. I would be fulfilled and content, but something or or some event would trigger a flip, with me becoming incredibly irritable and withdrawn at a moment's notice. These mood swings would eventually lead to the gradual degradation of my social life, and around a year later, I fell into what I thought was a clinical depression.
I finally begrudgingly graduated college at the insistence of my parents, who were furious upon realizing that I had actually had enough of the requisite credits to graduate several terms earlier, but literally had made no effort to act upon this due my increasing lack of ambition and apathy.
Following graduation, what I thought was depression became clearly worse, and I moved back in with my parents in 2018. From here, the mood swings became even more frequent and severe. This, combined with my continued aimlessness in life, along the seeming loss of ability to function in normal society, led my mother to finally seek a consultation with a local mental health clinic in my area around mid-July of 2019.
I discussed my symptoms in depth with my psychiatric nurse practitioner, and we decided to pursue treatment with Bupropion ER at 150 mg.
Upon taking my first dose, I realized that something was terribly amiss. Over the next four days, I experienced an incredible amount of anxiety; like almost that of impending doom.
I called my PNP day 4, and immediately let them know that something was terribly awry. After a brief check of my vitals and symptoms, we determined that I was encountering my first episode of mania; more specifically, dysphoric hypomania.
I was in a constant state of envy and panic. I became hyper-obsessed with cardio-vascular exercise, determining that my source of problems was my physical weight, and that if I could lose as much weight as quickly as possible, my self-image would improve.
Over the course of August and September of 2019, I proceeded to lose 60 lbs, mainly through extremely excessive cardio and a starvation diet. Despite this weight loss, I began to feel even more suicidal, as if I my goal was to literally exhaust myself to death.
My PNP attempted to get me to take a variety of medications -- at first, it was Luvox, as they thought some of my symptoms were a manifestation of OCD, but I resisted that due to fear of weight gain. The next being Lamictal; however, I was irrationally terrified of SJS, despite being informed that the likelihood of this reaction was that of winning the local powerball.
I ruled out antipsychotics-- again was terrified of the possibility of extra-pyramidal symptoms.
At this point, my PNP had come to the conclusion that I indeed likely had Bipolar II, but was at a loss due to my refusal to take any prescription medication. I eventually ceased the weight loss, mainly due finally the fear of involuntary hospitalization by my parents if I continued along the present course.
I spent the next year in limbo, finally working a job, but still avoiding the suggestion of any prescription medication. Finally, in May of 2020, probably due to the chaos of covid, I reluctantly started Lamictal, and soon moved up to therapeutic dose of 200 mg over the next eight weeks.
I kept up this regimen all the way through September of 2020, but abruptly ceased the medication cold turkey due to fears of what I thought was SJS was manifesting (spoiler alert -- it wasn't). I quickly descended back into that state of dysphoric hypomania, and resumed Lamictal that October.
My job soon came to an end, and unfortunately, I began to abuse alcohol frequently on the weekends. Eventually, it became apparent the Lamictal was no longer enough, as my drinking came to a head one weekend. My drunkeness, combined with my dysphoric hypomanic symptoms nearly caused me to lose all the people closest to me, which led to my agreement to begin Lithium in order to salvage these relationships.
The Lithium was very effective at reducing my suicidal ideation; however, the idea of keeping the element at specific blood levels seemed tedious, and the side effects soon led me to determine that I was finally ready to start an antipsychotic.
My PNP and I arrived on taking Seroquel, as it had the least movement side effect profile. I gradually increased my dosage to 300 mg at night, and my mania began to alleviate. With the abatement of my more serious symptoms, we finally discussed addressing my OCD with the medication I previously mentioned, Luvox.
Despite some initial setbacks (I believe we initially moved up the dosage to quickly, as some symptoms of serotonin overload became to manifest), but we slowed down and adjusted accordingly. I began to tolerate it well, and moved on to the maximum of 300 mg.
This regimen was kept up for the next two years, until I eventually had to find an alternative to Seroquel, as I had gained a hundred pounds (weight loss was no longer an issue at that point so I failed to recognize my turn in the opposite direction).
Back to the drawing board for Atypical Antipsychotics, we tried a variety, with all resulting in intense akathisia that could not be tolerated (Abilify, Latuda, Vraylar), and even tried another anti-convulsant, Oxcarbazapine. This, however, gave me a terrible itchy rash (not SJS), and it too had to be halted.
This June, we realized my insurance covered Caplyta, and I gave it the most recent crack. And it worked! I couldn't notice any significant side-effects, and I felt like I arrived on the proper psychotropic cocktail.
This cocktail includes as follows by dates initiating administration:
Lamotragine (Lamictal) - 200 mg (May of 2020)
Fluvoxamine (Luvox) - 300 mg (March of 2021)
Lumateperone (Caplyta) - 42 mg (June of 2023)
Further down the exploration process, and likely due to my newfound embrace of medication, my PNP and I felt comfortable enough to address another condition of what we thought I had along as well, ADHD. Medications like Adderall were off the table previously, but now that I was on a strong foundation of meds, we agreed that it was worth a short to give Amphetamine/Dextroamphetamine a crack, and soon worked up to 30 mg IR in the mornings.
This is where we believe the proverbial shit hit the fan. Three weeks ago, I began to notice strange physical sensations all over my body. These symptoms began mildly, but over the next two weeks increased dramatically. They were as follows:
Tightness in my eyes, as if someone were pulling my eyeballs upwards out of my sockets
Extreme stiffness in my neck, with difficulty swallowing.
Labored breathing
Pressure in my face, which led me to think of it initially as a sinus infection
And the more severe symptoms.
Rapid, irregular heartbeat
Extreme tightness in my chest, as if someone were standing on it with their feet
Uncontrolled drooling from the mouth
Facial contortions
Fluttering eyelids, dilated and unresponsive pupils
and eventually delirium and fatigue.
I ignored these as much as I could, until eventually I went to the local urgent care due the severity of the situation. From there, my blood pressure was measure at 175/125 or something along those numbers, with my pulse being 167 beat per minute.
A 15 minute ambulance ride later, and doctors at the hospital begin to run blood tests and physical examinations to see what might be happening.
And I fucked up. Doctor assigned to me informs me that the present cocktail I've been taking has worked in concert with one another to induce what I thought was rare as fuck, Serotonin Syndrome.
I am then told that I'll be staying the next 72 hours for monitoring, and that I'd be given massive doses of Ativan to bring me back from the brink.
I shit you not, the amount of Ativan they gave me should have put down an elephant, yet I remained lucid and unfortunately, very anxious. All psychotropic meds were ceased, and I was discharged cold turkey.
Word of advice to doctors in the future -- please don't discharge your patients completely off their psyche meds with no immediate plans to address the likely resurgence of mental health symptoms.
Let's just say I spent the last week in a state of intense delirium, grief, terror, rage, hopelessness, and extreme suicidal ideation.
I'm guessing these symptoms were exacerbated by the fact that I am still in the initial recovery phase of Serotonin Syndrome. Luckily, I was able to see my PNP to discuss the latest events last Wednesday.
We came to the conclusion that it was likely the introduction of Adderall that initiated the syndrome, and subsequently agreed that I should try to return to where I was on some of the medications.
Presently, I have restarted Caplyta at 42 mg, and Lamictal at 25 mg, with plans to level back up to 200 mg.
And now finally the golden question. Have any of you experienced side effects like these with any of your SSRI's and Antipsychotics, and what is your present cocktail?
I really would like to return to where I was on Luvox; however, I was unaware of how power a serotonergic agent this SSRI was, and am unsure if it would be wise to restart this.
Also, is Adderall something I can take a look at again in the future, or is it best to leave this class of meds out entirely?
I apologize for the essay.
Stay safe friends, and thank you for welcoming me into this community.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​

Before anyone says anything, I HAVE ALREADY HAD MEDICAL HELP.
Those who have had a rash (not SJS) from lamictal, how long did it take for it to go away after stopping the medication? Currently dealing with it now after going from 25mg to 50mg and just wondering when it will go away.

Hi! I am a sufferer of PSSD and I’m planning on restarting lamictal as I’ve read a few posts of people improving their PSSD symptoms after starting lamictal (even at a low dose). I have already taken lamictal before for almost a year and got the dose up to 225 mg but had doubts of my bipolar 2 diagnosis at the time and was experiencing difficulty with word recall which was really annoying. Looking back at it though, I believe this wonderful med was masking the PSSD I was already suffering from taking Zoloft previously.
My question is: Since I never developed the SJS rash, would my new psychiatrist have to slowly increase my dosage by 25mg a week, or could I start at 50 mg and go up by 50s? Im desperate for relief from this awful syndrome and reinstatement is my last hope before I decide to end my life in December as I have it planned. PSSD has completely ruined my life but I have hopes that Lamictal will restore most of it back (Hopefully my motivation to be social and achieve goals, along with a bit of genital sensitivity) as my time with this med was honestly one of the best periods of my life. Thanks a ton!

So I’ve been on Lamictal on and off. First time from 2015-18/19
Second time 2 months last Feb, when I upped my dose that day I got a pin prick rash, not SJS. I was titrated faster than ever that time due to no previous issues.
Now I’m wondering has anyone been kind of itchy I’m on day 2 there is no rash! Just kind of itchy. Not seeking medical advice I will talk to my Dr too, but I also would like hear from those who took it.
I was on topamax until last month and when it made my hair fall out!
Lamictal was my miracle drug (with work) but I felt more calm than ever and level.
Can’t take SSRIs and antipsychotics are too much for me.
I felt so much more pleasant on Lamictal and topamax, not agitated and reactive for once.
Anyway, please share if anyone had itching? I guess I’m just hoping this will subside.
Thanks

Edit- I already take 5000 vitamin D per day and 4 capsules of the ultimate omega fish oil
Edit 2- I got a full psych assess for adhd and it was decisively negative , but I do have PTSD from childhood and my daughters birth
I’m out of ideas and so is my integrative psychiatrist . I feel like there has to be something more, specifically for my depression.
My entire life I’ve been very anxious but after the birth of my child I’ve also been very depressed- the biggest symptom is difficulty getting out of bed in the morning (NOT due to sleep, my sleep is fine), always being exhausted, no motivation, and generally very irritable.
We’ve tried a mixture of integrative solutions that have definitely helped, but im not HAPPY. I want to be happy. The only times I’m actually happy are after 2 hours of rigorous cardio exercise (used to do when young, can’t do now) OR when I did a 6 month stint on Prozac- it really helped my mood but I gained a TON of weight in that time. I now have PCOS/metabolic syndrome and am very very averse to another SSRI due to their possible impacts on insulin.
We have already tried- - st John’s wort oil- i slather on nightly on my stomach, I think it helps a bit - progesterone cream - SAMe- 2 every morning, sometimes 2 midday- helps a lot with motivation but im not happy - theanine- makes me sleepy at night but again not happy - baclofen - 10mg AM and PM - helps with anxiety but not depression / not happy - tryptophan 500mg AM, 1000mg PM - didn’t seem to help? - ashwaganda - didn’t seem to help? - gabapentin - minorly helpful for situational anxiety but baclofen way better - propanalol - bad bc I have low blood pressure, felt faint - lithium 150mg / day - DOES help my anger for sure just doesn’t make me happy or want to get out of bed - Wellbutrin - gave me hallucinations - Prozac - gained 20lb in 5 months - Zoloft - gave me extreme GI symptoms - very afraid to try lexapro due to weight or lamictal due to SJS
Haven’t tried 5HTP would that help? Or maybe you think I should just try lexapro or lamictal?
If anyone has any other recommendations plz let me know. Or any of these supplements I should try again or in different ways.

Okay, so this is mostly a rant because I'm really sad about it. I don't mean to scare anyone away with my personal experience, as many people love it and never experience hair loss.
I started Lamictal about 3 months ago. I knew it could cause hair loss, but I tried not to worry. At around 50mg, I did notice excess shedding, but I chalked it up to paranoia and kept taking it. I am at 150mg now, and oh boy the shedding is horrendous. I'm talking 500 strands a day type hair loss. I know this because I count every single strand lost to make sure it's not just paranoia. It comes out in clumps in the shower. I stayed in a hotel room for about 10 days, and by the end, I could run my hands in a small place on the carpet and collect 20-30 hairs. 3/4ths of my hair is gone in 3 months, judging by ponytail and braid density. I am really, really heartbroken. My hair is my pride and joy. My safety blanket from the world. I'm sure it will take 2-3 months for things to improve too.
I also developed a strange "allergy" to sunlight. I have never had issues before his medication, but now I get rashes after about 20 minutes in sunlight. They go away after a few hours of being indoors and are only where the sun hit, so I know it's not SJS.
I just can't with this medication. My life is not so significantly improved that it's worth losing all my hair.
Edit: My psychiatrist is convinced that hair loss is an extremely rare side effect and it's likely stress or genetics. All my labs are normal. Hair loss isn't really genetic for women or men in my family. And despite copious amounts of stress in my life, I've never experienced this level of hair loss. Reddit also seems to disagree that this is an extremely rare side effect.

New neurologist wants me to move from epilim (sodium valproate) to lamictal (lamotrigine), my concerns are about SJS, my father got SJS from epilepsy medication, which nearly killed him.
I've spoken about this with all the doctors on this journey, so it's a concern of mine, after being told about the medication change, I've inevitably looked into the medication & SJS.
It's said that SJS are more common if you go up in dose too quickly & if you're also on sodium valproate, which both are true, as he wants me to go up the doses quickly, though I doubt those particular instructions will pass the pharmacist dispensing the medication.
I will bring this up with the team & push for keppra instead. It just frustrates me that it is the patient which has to do the legwork regarding such things, are they trying to give me SJS? I don't understand, seems pretty simple to me.

I started lamictal on Monday (its Thursday today for future reference) 25mg. And I got a lot of the "normal" side effects like higher energy levels, headaches, nausea, weird dreams etc.
But on Tuesday I started getting flu like symptoms like a stuffy nose and I had a little bit off a sore throat yesterday and I've had some fever that has come and gone. I have had no rash and im keeping an eye out, but I haven't seen many people have small fevers and was wondering if people have any experience? Of course the fever might not be from lamictal. Ive slept a little bad lately and had trouble eating and I get random fevers sometimes but its better to be safe than sorry.
for now I think I will monitor myself for rashes and other symptoms of sjs, but I won't ring the red alarm bell yet as I havent had any other issues or worries. If I notice anything I will contact my doc immediately so don't worry im being as careful as I can. But ye if anyone has had a similar experience with a mild fever feel free to comment, anything helps :)
Update: As of Saturday im all good, The fever went away on Friday and no signs of a rash or anything. The flu-like symptoms have for the most part disappeared. Now I just deal with a headache. Ill still keep an eye out, but for now I've resolved the first bump in the road

Been in the hospital for a bit over a week now recovering from SJS. I started taking lamictal 3 weeks ago, and by the second week started getting a rash. Ask me anything

Hi reddit! Started lamictal with p-doc after consulting about mood stabilizers. He's not super familiar with lamictal, and due to my history of being non-sensitive to medications (all I've taken have needed high dosages), he started me off on 100mg. Thus far I've had zero negative side effects, aside from one day about 4 days in of pretty significant spacy-ness. That said, I've learned now that starting at high doses can lead to an increased risk of a significant rash.
At this point, am I likely okay? Or should I reduce my dosage and titrate back up to 100mg? I feel like I need results from this med, but I also want to be cautious with the risk for SJS.