Posted by Lonely on February 8, 2006, at 0:29:22
In reply to Re: Anyone on Trileptal?, posted by olysi79 on September 30, 2004, at 5:42:10
To follow up, as things have changed and more discoveries made ...
My hubby went off Effexor much too fast - he became terribly agitated for several days. I sent several faxes to P doc who told him to go back on Effexor but he didn't want to knowing he would just have to go off it again. He was very mean and shaking and after a few weeks complained to a psychologist that I was mothering when I did what he wanted me to do. The psychologist foolishly believed him and told me we would have to get a divorce. We're still married at 33 years. No thanks to psychologist.
Unfortunately, the story gets worse w/Trileptal. He was falling down all over the place, even falling over accidentally on the 4 x great grandson of a famous writer at a festival!!! He had a lot of trouble walking. Since the side effects of withdrawing from Effexor in 1 week were so bad, it's possible they exacerbated the reaction to Trileptal. He did feel better on the Trileptal but was becoming more and more disfunctional physically. About that time - end of Dec, 2004, we found out he had MS ... and that Trileptal aggrevates the symptoms.
In Jan., 2005, he went to a new P doc and was put on Lamictal which we raised very, very slowly. No problems at all but at first it seemed like it didn't do much either. He was on Wellbutrin at the same time (time release) and thankfully did not have the depressive episodes. I began to suspect it was part of what made him agitated and hyper. In about the summer of 2005 he gradually went off Wellbutrin and stayed on Lamictal alone. I think that was better but he was still out of control. I suggested 400 mgs a day to P doc who agreed - again we did it very slooowwwlllyyy! After a period of several weeks I would have to say it helped. No rashes or other real side effects. And, he has multiple sclerosis, too. He admitted he can finish some tasks now that he couldn't before (can concentrate more) and he doesn't tremor as much and he's somewhat less hyper. It does have a slightly flattening effect on personality but not completely. He still can fly into a rage very quickly. All in all, I'd say that so far Lamictal alone is the best deal - whoever wrote and asked what he was doing on the antidepressant alone when he's bipolar (or mood disorder) was absolutely CORRECT! Thank you!
poster:Lonely
thread:395608
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060205/msgs/607407.html