My 8 1/2 year old son was placed on Lamictal (lamotrogrine) over one year ago with his Depakote.  His dose is 50 mg. Bid.  Since being on the Lamictal, his focus and concentration in school have significantly diminished and his short term memory and reading comprehension is very poor.  In fact, his kindergarten teacher is now tutoring him and she cannot believe how much he has regressed (probably due to his medications).  He is in the third grade now.

 He never had any signs or symptoms of ADD - after starting the Lamictal, he has all the classic symptoms of ADD.  So as of nearly 6 weeks ago, he began taking Concerta ER (18 mg first and now 27 mg. daily).  His focus and concentration have improved and we continue to work on his reading and memory skills.

 His teachers agree they see progress since he began taking the Concerta ER but it's only a first step.  I believe the antiseizure medications stop the seizures but can slow the brain processing.  I've done the research and even sent a University of Georgia study to my son's neurologist.

 Good luck!

Ok, I'm scared now. I am just starting Lamictal just like all of you did. I am not yet having any of the side effects you speak of but then again I already have all of these side effects from the meds I have been taking prior to starting Lamictal. I am currently of 800 mgs per day of Topamax (Dopemax) which for the last 4 years has removed my memory of events that have happened in the last 4 years, my ability to concentrate and has made me extremely stupid; 2000 mgs per day of Keppra which makes me tired, out of breath and off balance PLUS I have a VNS implant that was install 6/2010 and I still have regular seizures. I will be 50 years old next month and in 2006 epilespy reared its ugly head when it had not been seen or heard from in 34 years. I had 3 seizures at the age of 11 and I have not been on any medication since I was 13 years old. I supposedly had grown out of this decease. In 2007 I lost my job, my drivers' license and had to go on disability. Then my husband divorced me and my grown children de-mothered me due to their ignorance of the effects and mood swings of this decease/medication.  If I sound a bit hostile, you are probably right! Epilepsy has ruined much of my life, but I am tough and at this point I just need the seizures to STOP so I can get my license back, go back to work and move on with my life. I was hoping the Lamictal was going to be the last medication needed (as I have hope for every medication) but if it does not do that or the side effects are too great, than I will enroll myself in a drug research program and become a guinea pig to find the right drug or resort to brain surgery, if I can talk the insurance company into paying for it. If you gain nothing from this entry, please take this with you. DO NOT TAKE TOPAMAX!! It will frustrate you to no end when you cannot think of the smallest, easiest things you want to say or the name of people you have known for years. God bless to all.

I have such a bad memory from (generic) Lamictal that I have post-its everywhere but my forehead!

Phylis Feiner Johnson
www.epilepsytalk.com

Personally, the I've been on the Lamictal for a year at this point (200mg/day).  My side effects from that (in order of least disruptive to most):

1) Yawning - Virtually any time I'm talking out loud, my use of breath has me yawning almost constantly.  Pretty disruptive considering I work tech support in a call center.  I may wear out the mute button on my phone. 

2) My coordination is off now.  Used to be a skater-chick, ride a unicycle and have lots of fun balancing and walking on high and narrow things.  Now I'm lucky if I can round a corner without bumping into it with my chest or hips.  I can't wear white shirts or "nice" clothes anymore, because I have a good chance that I'm going to spill something on myself before the day is done.  My typing speed has been cut down to about a quarter of what it was (due to typos and having to look at the keyboard frequently now).  It's a miracle if I get through a sentence without using the backspace button.  On average I'm backspacing every other word.  What I intend to type and what my fingers do are not the same thing.

3) Severe memory/cognitive impairment - I had to make notes in order to type this up.  For reference sake (rather than bragging), throughout my life I've consistently been in the top 1% on universal IQ tests.  I'm a problem solver by nature. Having worked with the people in my department for 6 years, I'm now only able to recall about ten people's names reliably.  I have had to make myself a notebook listing what I need to do in my daily duties at work, giving myself step by step instructions because I won't know what to do on any given day.  I have to document all of my usernames/passwords in my notebook as well, because if I'm off work for even a week I will forget them entirely.  I've lost at least half of my vocabulary, and even that is being generous.  I struggle to remember simple words, or when I'm talking completely random wrong words will come out every few sentences.  If I get up from the couch to go to the kitchen, even odds I won't remember what I went for by the time I get there.  There is no way I can multi-task anymore.  It's hard enough keeping my mind to one task now.  At this point I fear for my job, and have been avoiding personal contact at work as much as possible so people don't notice my level of impairment.  My friends have to let me know that I've told them something repeatedly before.  Most of my life I've felt that my intellectual capacity was really all I had going for me, so losing it is devastating.

To be fair, Lamictal has stopped my seizures.  It's been great for that.  But it stops random short-circuits that cause seizures by depressing brain function in its entirety.  Everyone has different levels of cognitive suppression, so you may or may not experience any of the assorted side effects.  The key here is that if you start to have challenges braining, don't ask your doctor if you should stay on it.  Tell them you need to try a different medication.  Period.  

I also take Lamotragine and I have a lot of problems with my memory. I have been on Lamotragine for about 6 years and I take 900 mg / day, (300 mg 3 x a day). I am 26 and feel like I'm 80 sometimes.  I can sometimes forget something that someone tells me 10 minutes after they say it. I feel sometimes like I ask the same questions over and over cause I can't remember if I asked it already... I could go to a certian place a dozen times and still have to ask my husband for directions on how to get there. I do forget dates for dr appt. and hair cuts, things like that, so I have to use an alarm reminder in my cell phone. I can certainly tell a defferance in the way I think now and the way I did before all this medication. I also take Topamax 300 mg/day. When I sit down to concentration on something, I just feel cloudy and it is hard. It takes me a lot longer to think about things and make decisions. Another thing that I have started to notice is that every now and then I say the wrong word in a sentence when I'm talking then have to correct myself. For example if I'm walking out to the car with someone I'll say "Lets get in the can .... I mean car" It sounds silly but I do it sometimes and it makes me feel stupid. So I know how you feel because I also feel incompetent sometimes. I feel like it is my medication playing a big role.