Any experience withdrawing from lamotrigine?

[Geaux Tigers!]

I am considering aripiprazole monotherapy. It is a great medicine for me. It has my moods stable (Bipolar II), my ADHD under control (dopamine partial-agonist), some negative thoughts erased (neuroleptic), and my depression lifted (5-HT mechanism). I'm not keen on being psychoactive meds to live life and I realize that it's not "normal" to rely on an artificial chemical to get through the day, but I only want to use aripiprazole.

I am going to taper off lamotrigine since I feel like it didn't do much for me at all. Any experience with tapering?

I'm curious. What is it like cold turkey?

Thanks!!

 

[SerotonergicHaze]

My friend is scripted it (he has borderline personality disorder) and for some reason he decided to abruptly stop taking it for a few days (despite me warning him not to do that) anyway, it lead to extreme agitation, really extreme mood shifting and aggression. Don't go cold turky with anticonvuslants ever

 

[Swimmingdancer]

I think it really depends on the person, how long you've been taking it, why you are taking it, your unique brain, metabolism and sensitivity to withdrawals, and whether or not it has been actually doing much for you. I found it was not working for me and I tapered off really rapidly (over about 4 days) and I got no noticeable withdrawal symptoms at all. But I was taking it for depression and ADHD and it may be different for people taking it for seizures or severe bipolar, or those who found it an effective treatment (as your original symptoms would likely come back and may be worsened). However, serious withdrawal symptoms are not common.

Lamotrigine is chemically unrelated to other anti-convulsants and the withdrawals are not generally much less common, much less severe, and much shorter in duration than withdrawals from, say, benzodiazepines. A 2 to 3 week taper is normally effective for the majority of people in preventing noticeable withdrawal symptoms, so I would advise talking to your doctor about a suitable taper plan.

 

[Cloroxtastebad]

I believe it strongly depends on what your being treated for with this medication. For me it was used to augment effexor and abilify. Ive never had any bipolar symptoms, just ongoing mild/moderate depression. I was on it for 4 months without noticing any improvements. I actually didn't notice anything, no side effects, but no improvement either. needless to say, my doctor allowed me to stop cold turkey. I didnt experience any withdrawals what so ever. This may not be the case for others, especially those being treated for bipolar disorder.

Too play it safe i would taper however. I may have been lucky and not experienced any withdrawals. Typically doctors will taper their patients off lamotrigine fairly quickly, depending however on the duration it was used for. At a typical dose of 100-150mg, the tapering process is usually -25-50mg every 2 days. Sometimes -25-50mg daily. With a higher dose and longer duration of use, the tapering process is, i would believe, a bit slower. I am not sure what that looks like however.

 

[paranoid android]

I take 200mg's everyday for bipolar disorder and Ive been on it for about 5 years. I have stopped taking it a few times with no noticable withdrawal symptoms other then return of bipolar mood swings.

However it is not a good idea to stop any anti-convulsant cold turkey or to taper to fast. Doing that can lower the seizure threshold and there is a risk of seizure even in people with no previous history of epilepsy.