Posted by Golf4 on December 21, 2002, at 15:39:02
In reply to Re: Lamictal for BP2 : Love it so far, posted by colin wallace on December 20, 2002, at 12:24:50
> Hi Amy,
>
> I was wondering how you were faring so far on Lamictal- seems as if you are getting the common early boost towards normality that I experienced within a few days.It's not a placebo effect, but you WILL need to raise the dose weekly to sustain the effect.I have to say that, for me at least, titrating was a tricky business at first.Expect some days where you feel irritable in the extreme- I literally felt like screaming on occasion!The best ways to counter this are 1) grit your teeth and ride it out for a few days- it will pass, believe me (remember, undoing years of screwy brain chemistry ain't gonna be smooth 'n easy!)2) take a low dose, long lasting benzo. for a short while- I used 2 to 4mg of diazepam which helped a lot. 3)lower the dose slightly for a few days, then nudge it back up slowly.4)Paradoxically,RAISE the dose! When I hit 25mg for a few weeks I suddenly lost all benefit and began to slide and get anger symptoms-felt like giving it up at this stage.Then, I took the plunge and hit 50mg, and felt great for ages.My mood became consistently smooth at this point, and further (12.5mg) raises were fairly easy.
> This is all very subjective though- you may get away with very few adverse affects- some people, as you know, can whack up the dose by 25mg each week, and hit 400mg in no time.I'd go low and slow if I were you though, with your med. sensitivity.Good luck, and have a great Christmas!
>
> PS.No probs exercising on Lamictal whatsoever-no interactions with supplements.
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yes,Collin,I agree with you(due to my own experience)that the WAY&RITHM to reach the "therapeutic" dose is really very individual (due to that rash risk),BUT the main question would be :what is THE therapeutic dose?
Although,this should be an individual issue,too there should be already enough data on the min.(possibly (effective) and the max.aloud doses ;for instance,we do know that in the case of Celexa for instance,the usual range is between 10-40mg.I have read somewhere that the range of 200-600mg(for BP2) is a "normal"accepted range,but still no too many articles on this issue.Good luck to all of us being on this promising Mood Stabilizer
and lets hope that the next year will be indeed a Happier One !! Merry Christmas!!
Paul
poster:Golf4
thread:131533
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021217/msgs/132794.html