Posted by blueberry on July 20, 2005, at 5:19:45
In reply to Lamictal discontinuation causing hyper anxiety?, posted by 4WD on July 19, 2005, at 23:15:09
I sure know that hyper anxiety feeling, deep fear and panic stuff. I've had that happen to me before when I stopped a med that had any effect on dopamine. Very scary. I sure feel for you.
I'm no scientist, but my pdoc explained to me that lamictal has some dopamine reuptake inhibition to it, which indirectly causes a decrease in dopamine release. So when lamictal is stopped, dopamine release increases again, and that is a possible cause of the hyper anxiety. Lamictal also smooths out the electrical stuff, so without it the electrical stuff is going haywire. That's just a crude way of theorizing where that anxiety is coming from. I could be wrong, but since nothing else had changed, lamictal is probably the culprit.
The anxiety stuff should resolve on its own to where it was to begin with before lamictal, but I don't know how long that will take.
My pdoc, and an emergency room doctor, both at one time gave me prescriptions for xanax...just ten tablets...to keep onhand for emergencies whenever I have an adverse reaction like you are. If you went to the emergency room with your anxiety or panic, they would most likely give you short term xanax or ativan to calm it down. They told me there is no reason to suffer through that.
To augment your celexa, and to get good anxiety relief, I think zyprexa first choice and seroquel second choice would be tops on the list. I know from experience that zyprexa would completely stop that anxiety stuff in about 2 hours like magic. It goes very well with antidepressants usually. I like my zyprexa, which blends well to my prozac.
poster:blueberry
thread:530425
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050718/msgs/530513.html