Lamotrigine (Lamictal)

I was hoping that someone could help me who has experience with Lamotrigine (Lamictal) and has stopped it. My daughter is not bipolar but was put on this medication to help migraines. She saw a new neurologist who suggested she go off of it and try something else but was not familiar with this medication. He didn't say anything about weaning off of it but luckily she knew to do this. The problem is even with weaning off of it she is having awful side effects (depression, severe mood swings, feeling very upset and angry for no reason and fatigued).

She was on 200 mg a day total divided into 4 pills in the morning and 4 at night. She had been decreasing by one pill each day this week until she started to get bad withdrawal symptoms. She started decreasing pills on Monday and is currently down to 2 pills in the morning and 3 at night so 125 mg total. Is she decreasing too fast? Are these normal symptoms? How long should this last? Thanks for the help.

Hi hpymomof3,

Welcome to the Bipolar forum!

Those emotions that you mention are side effects of weaning off the med. How long did your daughter use Lamictal for? The longer you have been on the drug, the more difficulty you are going to have adjusting to functioning both physical and psychological without it, and you can experiencing the withdrawal symptoms. Also, the higher the dose that you are taking of this med, the more intense the withdrawal symptoms.

Maybe she should wean off smaller dosage and not so quickly to see if it helps.

I hope she will feel better.

UA