Posted by sweetmarie on June 5, 2002, at 5:22:13
In reply to Re: HELP - Very Worried ... Side Effects » sweetmarie, posted by Ritch on June 4, 2002, at 12:50:18
> Hi Anna,
>
> There are others here that have had experience with headache associated with lamotrigine that could help better, so maybe they will jump in with some suggestions. Anyhow, can you attribute the headache to the Lamictal? In other words, is Lamictal the only medication that you are taking? The reason I ask is that some meds can raise Lamictal blood levels (such as Depakote, i.e.), which would result in the same thing as a big dose increase of the Lamictal. Have you done any blood monitoring of your Lamictal? That dose is a little on the high side. You may need to monitor the levels and decrease the Lamictal a little more. Has your GP or pdoc suggested something (other than pain killers)to add to help relieve the headaches? Can you describe what kind of headaches that you are experiencing? Are they migraine-like (one-sided) associated with nausea, or are they more like severe tension headaches?
>
> hope you get better,
>
> MitchHi Mitch
Thanks for replying (I was beginning to think that no one would).
I`ve always had headaches - since long before I started taking any `psychiatric` medication. I`ve come to the conclusion over the years (30-odd now)that these are tension headaches, and I have usually managed to get rid of them with ordinary painkillers.
This particular headache is like a severe tension headache - a kind of tight band of pain around my head, that virtually never lets up. My psychiatrist upped the doses of 2 of my medications approx 10 weeks agao - he put my Mirtazapine up from 30 mg to 45 mg, and my Lamotragine up to 300 mg from 250 mg. This was because I hit a VERY `sticky` patch back around February, which was mainly to do with quite a lot of `external` stuff going on. The headache appeared about 5 weeks ago, and as a result my GP advised me to lower the Lamotragine dose back to 250 mg. This was a week ago now.
I`ve looked up the side effects of my other meds - Mirtazapine and Venlafaxine, and headache is not listed as a side-effect of these, so I can only assume that it`s the Lamotragine (and both my psychiatrist and GP tend to agree). Yesterday, I started getting very dizzy as well, and have been both dizzy and a bit feverish ever since. I hardly slept last night.
Apart from the severe headache (which leaves me totally immobile at times), I am also very depressed again. I think that this is probably the result of the headache and the fact that it`s prevented me from doing almost anything for the past few weeks. As for any other remedy suggestions, I have only been prescribed Co-codamol and Ibuprofen, which doesn`t work. I have an appointment with my GP next week to review the situation. I`m just extremely worried that I`m slipping back into the severe depression again, just as I was beginning to come out of it.
Anyway - that`s it, really. I`m hoping that it`s `withdrawal`, and wil get better after awhile. I`m just at the end of my rope about the whole thing. I don`t get my bloods checked out - when I was in hospital last year I did, but not since. I just don`t know.
Anyway, thank you so much for replying - it was very kind of you. I guess I`ll wait and see - don`t really know what else I can do. It would help if I had some idea of how long side-effects take to subside; my GP reckoned about 10 days - I guess she would know.
Thanks again,
Anna.
poster:sweetmarie
thread:108631
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020602/msgs/108742.html