Posted by psychobot5000 on February 21, 2007, at 17:02:24
In reply to Lamictal effects by day 5? PDoc says 'no', posted by Joe Bloe on February 21, 2007, at 16:16:15
"Since starting lamictal 5 days ago, I feel my depression has improved significantly, but I began to experience many problems with concentration, memory recall, and even speaking"
___Hi,
I went on Lamictal a little less than a year ago, and I'm afraid I had much the same experience. Rapid improvement in depression (which was not sustained for more than a few days--this also seems to be a pattern according to the reseach I've read), but then a gradual onset of cognitive symptoms. Was a gradual onset, but by around eight days in my mind was slowing down a lot--a very strange feeling. Took several weeks to go away, by the way (though I was on it for longer than you've been), but they most certainly did go away.
The particularly frustrating and confusing part of it was that these side-effects were not listed in any recongnizable form on the official materials, and like yours, my doc thought it unlikely that Lamictal was causing it (though he didn't rule it out). Luckily, I found several posts on this board, and other places, where patients had a similar experience.
Lamictal does seem to be clean of cognitive side-effects for a lot of people. Cleaner than other drugs of its class, apparently. But (as far as I can tell) there are a significant minority of people who experience these problems with memory recall, mental focus, and etc. It's real. I attest to that from my own experience.
Incidentally, it seems that there are six large studies on Lamictal's mood benefits that recently turned up (they were apparently suppressed) that show no evidence of antidepressant efficacy for Lamictal, aside from the initial acute mood-benefit. It seems that it's not working out very well as an antidepressant.
Best of luck,
'Psychbot'
poster:psychobot5000
thread:734880
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070219/msgs/734898.html