Harm Reduction can lamotrigine be used as an aide to taper off benzos?

[Spadez87]

I was recently dxed bipolar ll with rapid cycling. I was put on lamotrigine and latuda. I am already taking 10 mgs valium and have been stable there for awhile after taking a couple months off my over year long taper to let my body rest a bit.

I would like to continue on on my valium taper. My question is would the anti convulsant propertise of lamotrigine and its action on GABA sites ease me in the final stages of this brutal taper? Ive been put on lamotrigine anyways maybe it will have the effect of preventing some of the phyical bs from tapering benzos?

i plan to ask my pdoc on the 19th but i thought id ask here to.

 

[MagickalKat777]

I'm curious about this as well because I was diagnosed the same and I seem to remember that lamictal was the only med that didn't cause me a shitload of nasty side effects.

Funny you put this up here now. I see my psych tomorrow and was going to ask her about mirtazapine and lamictal and a switch from Valium to Tranxene.

 

[Spadez87]

I'm curious about this as well because I was diagnosed the same and I seem to remember that lamictal was the only med that didn't cause me a shitload of nasty side effects.

Funny you put this up here now. I see my psych tomorrow and was going to ask her about mirtazapine and lamictal and a switch from Valium to Tranxene.

yeah, im not getting anyside effects from the lamotrigine either. Then again im only at 25mgs. i wont be at my target dose of 200mgs till march 4th.

Valium to tranxene eh? maybe ill give that a whirl. I really dont want to finish this taper without an aide or just a switch to something like lamotrigine im on anyways.
Im think ive been through enough hard shit, done things the right and/or hard enought since jan 2013 and DESERVE an easy route.

Tapering from 180mgs valium daily, quitting smoking, quitting hard shit after oding 3 times in jan 2013, quitting weed all in 12.5 moths i think qualifies me for an "easy" way out.

fucking life

 

[MagickalKat777]

yeah, im not getting anyside effects from the lamotrigine either. Then again im only at 25mgs. i wont be at my target dose of 200mgs till march 4th.

I believe I was up to 150mg before I stopped taking everything after a local mental health hospital added Geodon and mirtazapine to my Klonopin and Lamictal while taking me off Celexa cold turkey. I had discontinuation syndrome from the Celexa and thought it was the other meds so I dropped everything but the Klonopin when the discontinuation syndrome kicked in.

Valium to tranxene eh? maybe ill give that a whirl. I really dont want to finish this taper without an aide or just a switch to something like lamotrigine im on anyways.

Well doing research, Tranxene might be the next logical step. It covers more GABA sub units than Valium does because it turns into pure desmethyldiazepam (its a prodrug for it) while Valium can have many metabolites. My doctor suggested the switch when I last saw her. I might be willing to try it. I seem to remember doing quite well on it when I was in for a rapid detox from Valium even though they were giving me less than the equivalent dose I'd be taking of diazepam.

Im think ive been through enough hard shit, done things the right and/or hard enought since jan 2013 and DESERVE an easy route.

Tapering from 180mgs valium daily, quitting smoking, quitting hard shit after oding 3 times in jan 2013, quitting weed all in 12.5 moths i think qualifies me for an "easy" way out.

fucking life

Yeah... I would say you've been through a lot. I stopped the hard shit in 2011 but dropped drinking, cigs, and started my taper all at the same time in September. Its been anything but a picnic. All I can say... is hang in there. Everyone says it gets better so it must be true at some point.

 

[MagickalKat777]

Well I'll keep ya posted. I'm starting Lamictal at 25mg tonight.

My doctor wants to avoid having to put me on multiple medications so her goal for me is 300-400mg.

Its nice having a doctor who doesn't want to put me on a bunch of meds. She froze my taper at 7.5mg for another 5 weeks at least too which means that I'll be on 7.5mg from 12/11/2013 until 3/18/2014 at the earliest. I'm not sure how I feel about that but she seems to know what she's doing. When they took my vitals today it became pretty apparent that I was improved as my pulse when I went in last time was 120 and it was only 86 today. Considering that I was still anxious when they took my vitals, 86 was not the number I expected lol.