Posted by galkeepinon on August 28, 2003, at 0:27:03
In reply to Re: Lamictal Anxiety /sleep problems--does it go a » BaxterMckay, posted by BarbaraCat on August 26, 2003, at 12:47:30
Barbara, you're really helping me here-thanks! When I reached 200mg on Topamax I had that skin reaction-the itchies BAD! So now I take 50mg only. I never got the 'rash' on Lamictal when I took it a few years ago, but I was also being increased on it too fast back then also. This time I am going to go slow and your posts help to remind me of that.
Thanks bunches!!!:-)> If I were you, I would run like hell to another pdoc. Ramping up at 25mg per week is criminal. All in your head! Of COURSE it's in your head! The nervous crawling especially should have given it away that you were going up MUCH too fast. Has he/she ever heard of 'the rash'? At early stages, no more than 12.5mg a week should ever be attempted, and even at later stages you should stay at 25mg for at least 2 weeks. I stayed at 50mg for quite a while after 75mg was too much. I slowly got up to 150mg and that was too much with the panic attacks and skin itchies. My pdoc for once jumped up with alarm and told me to go down 25mg IMMEDIATELY because any skin reaction is cause for concern. Ramped down to 125mg and I'm a happy camper. Really, your therapist sounds a little dicey, IMHO. Lamictal is NOT a med too fool around with.
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> > My therapist kept telling me that it was all in my head as a I progressivly had more and more panic attacks and nervous crawling while ramping up 25mg per week until I was 100mg. I kept saying to myself that they know what's best. Finally, I decided that maybe I needed to do something different and go off the Lamictal just to find out if that was the problem. I ramped down to 50mg ( 25mg 12 hours apart ) for a day and then tried to stop completely.( big mistake! ) I felt so depressed I couldn't hardly move. I've never had depression like that in my life before, ever. I went back up to 50mg ( 25mg 12 hours apart ) and haven't had panic or depression since I did that. That was really fun. I think I will stay at this dose for a while and see how things go. With hindsight I should have insisted on a much lower ramping schedule and dosage when I first started having trouble.
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poster:galkeepinon
thread:221759
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030823/msgs/254933.html