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Emotional Side Effect- lots of med adjustment
Tue, 02/17/2015 - 13:51Hey, I'm new to this community and figured I'd ask if anyone has any experience with this. I've been taking Lamictal at 300 per day. Vimpat was added in mid December. I became very irritable and it was dismissed by me as just holiday stress and new job stress. I was off the Vimpat for 2 weeks after that because I ran out of the sample pack. When I went back to the neuro (yeah, I know, I waited 2 weeks, lesson learned) he put me back on the Vimpat and raised the Lamictal. The Vimpat immediately caused me to be very irritable, no filter, and suicidal. 4 days later, that was gone. This started on Thursday Jan 29 and I last took it Monday Feb 2. I continued with the Lamictal dose, but a positive effect of the Vimpat was that it countered my brain fog side effect of Lamictal. As the two cross faded, my increased Lamictal dose side effects came back, so I made the decision to cut back to my previous dose on 2/5. I'm still going to need the medicines adjusted, but going through that wide range of emotions over that period of time has left me very discombobulated emotionally. I feel like I have no heart or empathy. I realize that the halflives of these medicines are probably out of my system. I also have a very disjointed memory of the time I was on these medicines and feel like I'm regaining equillibrium. Has anyone else had an experience with this. I just want to get a guage if that many medication adjustments can produce this, either chemically or just psychologically. Thanks!
WELCOMEAre you trying to
Submitted by just_joe on Tue, 2015-02-17 - 16:51
WELCOMEAre you trying to reduce the dosages of your medication by yourself or are you doing this with your neurologists directions??? It takes time for your body to get used to the medications which is generally 3-6 weeks. when a medication is added then the time starts again. That is because your body has to get used to the new medication and adjust to it and the original medication. So if you stopped taking one within 3-5 weeks of starting it then you have some medication built up which your body will get rid of. But it takes time for your body to get rid of the medication. so I made the decision to cut back to my previous dose on 2/5. Basically what I am trying to tell you is it does take time for your body to get used to your medicatioons. 3-5 weeks for the medication at the dosages originally set. when another medication is added then there is another 3-5 week period of time. With each dosage change the time period would be about the same. Once you have been on medications to control your seizures then if you are taken off a medication it then takes a month or longer for the medicatioon to complete leave your system. Your doctor knows more about dosages and medications and has gone to school and paid a chit load of money to garner that information. So let him prescribe th medications and dosages and just follow his guidlines. The more tinkering you do the longer it will be to get your seizures under control. I know most people do not like taking medications. I know I hate taking mine. But I would rather take them then go bouncing arround the room having a seizure. Or go into status epilepticus.. BEEN THERE DONE THAT