Does lamotrigine cause decreased ability for orgasm?

Greetings:

drugs.com says:

"Lamotrigine is an anti-epileptic medication, also called an anticonvulsant.

"Lamotrigine is used either alone or in combination with other medications to treat epileptic seizures in adults and children.

"Lamotrigine is also used to delay mood episodes in adults with bipolar disorder (manic depression)."

So one question is, if you're bipolar, like I am and take one med (Lithium) for the mania, and one med (Mirtazapine) for the depression.

The questions is, if you're taking one med (Lamotrigine) for the mania, what are you taking for the depression side of manic-depression?

drugs.com also says: "What is the most important information I should know about lamotrigine?" and adds:

"Lamotrigine may cause a severe or life-threatening skin rash, especially in children and in people who take too high of a starting a dose, or those who also take valproic acid (Depakene) or divalproex (Depakote).

"First Aid for Mental Health: Investigational Drugs to the Rescue
Seek emergency medical attention if you have: fever, sore throat, swelling in your face or tongue, burning in your eyes, skin pain, followed by a red or purple skin rash that spreads (especially in the face or upper body) and causes blistering and peeling."

-------------------

In addition to the first question above, of, are you also taking an anti-depressant, another issue is: are you bipolar?

nih.gov says:

"Do you feel very happy and energized some days, and very sad and depressed on other days? Do these moods last for a week or more? Do your mood changes make it hard to sleep, stay focused, or go to work?

"Some people with these symptoms have bipolar disorder, a serious mental illness."

The same website says signs of mania are:

Feel very “up” or “high”
Feel “jumpy” or “wired”
Have trouble sleeping
Become more active than usual
Talk really fast about a lot of different things
Be agitated, irritable, or “touchy”
Feel like their thoughts are going very fast
Think they can do a lot of things at once
Do risky things, like spend a lot of money or have reckless sex

Signs of depression are:

Feel very “down” or sad
Sleep too much or too little
Feel like they can’t enjoy anything
Feel worried and empty
Have trouble concentrating
Forget things a lot
Eat too much or too little
Feel tired or “slowed down”
Have trouble sleeping
Think about death or suicide

-------------------

Do have some of these above signs? You say: "First, not sure I have bipolar....on the fringes."

It's good that you ask that question, because if you don’t know what the illness is, it can be difficult to treat.

You psychiatrist has 15, 30 or 50 minutes with you. You have days, weeks, months to look into this issue. To look on the net.

Why did you go see a psychiatrist? How were you behaving? What do you think might be your situation?

I never saw in the side effects for that medicine where it said that it decreased sex drive.

In my view, you would be the best judge of what your drive was before the med, and then after you took it.

Nobody knows that but you.

I would go to the search engine and type in your medicine, "Lamotrigine", and look in some of those sites for something like, "comments from patients" or something like that.

From some that I've seen, you can read comments from others who have taken that medicine, and see what they say.

Maybe you can type in your question on one of those sites, and see if there are any responses.

no to your question. bar the johnsons rash, it has very few side effects.

hi yogurt. yep true, horses for courses. it is an actual newer anti epileptic med. am male on hrt, so I know parts of this, mine was interrupts. the brain is the pleasure ctr, the actual process of the orgasm starts there. for you this is the prob, which is tough. having the orgasm and the effects is good....and hopefully with new developments you will feel it... but yep many meds wreck this, for me, diuretics!! keep strong... thx for sharing.

Tim Tam said...
Greetings:

drugs.com says:

"Lamotrigine is an anti-epileptic medication, also called an anticonvulsant.

"Lamotrigine is used either alone or in combination with other medications to treat epileptic seizures in adults and children.

"Lamotrigine is also used to delay mood episodes in adults with bipolar disorder (manic depression)."

So one question is, if you're bipolar, like I am and take one med (Lithium) for the mania, and one med (Mirtazapine) for the depression.

The questions is, if you're taking one med (Lamotrigine) for the mania, what are you taking for the depression side of manic-depression?

drugs.com also says: "What is the most important information I should know about lamotrigine?" and adds:

"Lamotrigine may cause a severe or life-threatening skin rash, especially in children and in people who take too high of a starting a dose, or those who also take valproic acid (Depakene) or divalproex (Depakote).

"First Aid for Mental Health: Investigational Drugs to the Rescue
Seek emergency medical attention if you have: fever, sore throat, swelling in your face or tongue, burning in your eyes, skin pain, followed by a red or purple skin rash that spreads (especially in the face or upper body) and causes blistering and peeling."

-------------------

In addition to the first question above, of, are you also taking an anti-depressant, another issue is: are you bipolar?

nih.gov says:

"Do you feel very happy and energized some days, and very sad and depressed on other days? Do these moods last for a week or more? Do your mood changes make it hard to sleep, stay focused, or go to work?

"Some people with these symptoms have bipolar disorder, a serious mental illness."

The same website says signs of mania are:

Feel very “up” or “high”
Feel “jumpy” or “wired”
Have trouble sleeping
Become more active than usual
Talk really fast about a lot of different things
Be agitated, irritable, or “touchy”
Feel like their thoughts are going very fast
Think they can do a lot of things at once
Do risky things, like spend a lot of money or have reckless sex

Signs of depression are:

Feel very “down” or sad
Sleep too much or too little
Feel like they can’t enjoy anything
Feel worried and empty
Have trouble concentrating
Forget things a lot
Eat too much or too little
Feel tired or “slowed down”
Have trouble sleeping
Think about death or suicide

-------------------

Do have some of these above signs? You say: "First, not sure I have bipolar....on the fringes."

It's good that you ask that question, because if you don’t know what the illness is, it can be difficult to treat.

You psychiatrist has 15, 30 or 50 minutes with you. You have days, weeks, months to look into this issue. To look on the net.

Why did you go see a psychiatrist? How were you behaving? What do you think might be your situation?

I just wrote a response to your post. Not sure how this system works yet...however this is response #2. I am now taking Lamotrigine 100 mg per day. I was advised by the psychiatrist to move from 100 to 200 a day but didn't have the nerve to do so...because of the sleepy brain (accentuated by the Hashimoto brain). I am now due for a check up and need to inform the new psychiatrist why I chose not to take 200. wonder if I should stop medication altogether as not willing to go to 200 and if 100 not working discontinue for my bodies sake. I am on poor woman insurance ( I am grateful)...so passing through psychiatrists. No deep introspection...I will share my last one...who seemed very in-depth - made this diagnosis of me:

Trauma induced mood instability; early life, and chronic
Prescribed light therapy (which I didn't do)
Unstable weather and unstable attachment w parents
Wellutrin may help w mood stability

A bit about thyroid issues - supplements which are hard to afford
psychological - narrative of life, cognitive behavior therapy, groups.

If I have sleep apnea (which keep putting off sleep study) - part of this response is dealing with things haven't dealt with yet - bad with taking benzos...which I do take 2 mg of clonazepam nightly to sleep. apparently the bentos have several negative repercussions...including dealing with snoring...and perhaps dome depression while taking with sleep apnea.

Trauma/PTSD

Bipolar? Anger but rage subsided: therapist seemed hesitant to go there

Anxiety disorder , depression but largely subsided

Moody; get stuck in a mood, irritable, - reasons I started medication.

Only met with shrink once...now a new one.

Hi
I'm on 125mg in the morning and 125mg at night. I'm supposed to of increased the dose to try and stop the seizures but haven't because of this side effect. The reason I found your post was trying to find a solution to the orgasm problem. My neuro doesn't seam to understand that this side effect does affect peoples lives quite significantly. I have to take this drug to at least try and control the seizures and depression but the sexual problems are a nightmare. Now even when I do orgasm there isn't the same level of intensity, length of time and oddly I keep loosing concentration during the act. It has made any type of intimate relationship feel impossible. I use to have a very high sex drive and never had a problem with having an orgasm. I just want my normal healthy sex life back. I'm not sure what else I can do as I can't switch meds again and I'm worried to add another in case it makes the problem worse.

I also think part of the problem is people don't want to talk about these things, even on the internet so its difficult to find any information, advice or support about it. I have booked an appointment with a different neurologist to ask for some advice but it looks to be such a common side effect I'm not really sure if there is much that can be done.

I think it has something to do with the PTSD.

For the blokes and ladies. Really important to get hormone levels checked. Some meds food stuffs amd over the counter can play havoc in this dept.

Men...valarian...reduces testosterone levels....hops...enough said...
And plenty of good stuff for both men and women. Garlic...men sarsparella and zinc. This...zinc is crucial.

Men prostate exam if betyer side of forty....cough me. Women.....things like pcos. And the ladies you guys need a small amount of testerone...so check.
Regards. HT

Hi Efergie,

I have had sexual problems with certain antidepressants before. It is very frustrating especially when they work good otherwise. The ones I have had problems with were paxil and then again with lexapro. Both which are SSRIs. Though lamictal isn't an SSRI, I can still understand your frustration. Have you expressed your feelings to your prescribing doctor? I certainly would see if there was another medication that you could try.

Best wishes in solving the problem.

And welcome to the forum.

Hugs, Karen...