Posted by Ritch on August 2, 2002, at 10:12:18
In reply to Re: Lamictal, honey moon is over!, posted by Maximus on August 1, 2002, at 22:41:49
> > Well, Depakote and Lithium is out due to weight gain right? You might lose weight on Topamax, but I don't think you will like its Fz (zombification factor)! Neurontin is too expensive.. Lamictal made you panic...
> > Hmm.. I would say give some generic Tegretol a try (carbamazepine).
>
>
> Well, Depakote is out of question but not Lithium. I did gain less weight with Li. Neurontin is simply and purely not a mood stabilizer. At best Neurontin is a good add-on as an anti-anxiety agent.
>
> Tegretol. My pdoc did not mention it. Why? I don't know. May be the side effects are legion?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
Probably because you have to have blood work done to make sure you aren't developing a blood disorder (it has a rare propensity to cause that). Also, you will need to get a blood level to make sure it isn't too high (like lithium). But, the "real-world" hassles with Tegretol is mainly that its blood levels can skyrocket depending on what other medications you are taking (drug-drug interactions). There was a Navy vet in one of my classes at college who switched from lithium to Tegretol because he was complaining his memory (on his high lithium dose) was shot, and he claimed his mental functioning was better on Tegretol (but he didn't tell me what dose he was taking).Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:114841
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020731/msgs/114924.html