Lamictal and Hair Loss

Re: Lamictal and Hair Loss

Submitted by meg0529 on Thu, 2010-10-07 - 12:53

I FEEL YOUR PAIN! I have been on this wretched medication for over 3 years. 150mg morning 125 evening. I used to have epilepsy and I took Depakote and Kepra cocktail for it. Then i got surgery and no more seizures. I was a fatty on Depakote, but there was nothing I could do really. Once I came off of Depakote, I started to have horrible mood swings, bouts of anger, so my doc suggested Lamictal. My mood more or less was brought into control, but my hair started to fall, like nothing I had ever seen. All I could do was watch and cry a lot. I was 21 at the time. My doc as usual denied it. Said I should see a dermatologist, Selsun blue, blah blah blah. When will they admit it? Ah yes, when the makers of Lamictal stops shoving commissions, you know where. So upsetting! Anyway, after a while the hairloss did reduce, but only after I barely had any hair. Notice I said reduced, but that doesn't men the hair grew back. I can't do anything with it. Either leave it down or ponytail it. I had such thick beautiful hair at one point. Anyway now I'm weaning off of it. Hairloss has started again. I will come back and post when I'm completely off of it. I'm probably going to start yoga classes or something. My heart goes out to all of you who have lost hair, it's painful, being a girl especially. I hope and pray once I am off of this, my hair come back. At least some of it. Maybe I sound vain to some people, but I took this drug to be happy, to be normal. Yet everytime I look in the mirror it's depressing. I spent so long, so miserable. So what is the point? I think AEDs should be a last resort sort of thing, especially if like me you are taking it for mood stabilization. I refuse to get on anti depressants. So yoga, exercise, lifestyle change is what I'll try. Thanks to everyone that posted, it really makes me feel not alone.

Re: Lamictal and Hair Loss - NEW QUESTION

Submitted by mw on Fri, 2010-12-17 - 22:41

I've taken Lamictal since 2006 for epilepsy.  I've lost tons of hair - same as everyone else

NOW FOR THE $64,000 QUESTION 

Has anyone stopped taking lamictal and had their hair grow back?

Inquiring minds NEED TO KNOW.

Re: Lamictal and Hair Loss

Submitted by 1hairywhite on Mon, 2011-01-10 - 13:52

my seizure was in july 2010. i started lamotrigine (lamictal generic) sept. 2010...i thought i was overreacting when i first lost afew hairs but these last couple of months, i'm soooo depressed ..i've lost 1/3 on my hair!!  this is in 5months!!! i was told to go on lexapro to get rid of the depression the lamotrigine has caused... my primary dr. said it's alopecia...the dermatoligist said to get off my meds and use rogain...we live on 1 retirement check a month and I can not spend 50.00 a pop for a hair product that may not work....my family told me i looked fine; now they just say "oooh, sorry mom".  the beautician said i have more hair than some other clients (who are in their 80's). my neuroligist said it's not a side effect, it's stress from worrying about my health...a natural hair loss after a trauma.....i don't want to wait till it's completely gone...i've seen the centrum silver suggestion...i use nioxin and the few hairs i have feel nice but big deal...you can still see the whole scalp on the top, sides and upper back.  i've read all comments here and think it's strange it's not listed as a side effect, yet only 2 or 3 of 100+ comments haven't lost hair....please...will someone tell me something that will put a positive spin on this...has it grown back for most of you? will it grow back at all??? has anyone had cortisone injections in the scalp?  did it help?  i'd love to stop crying about this so if you can, give my some positive feed or tell me about the substitutes for lamictal..my other side effects are loss of balance...forgetfullness, not being able to come up with the right word or short tern memory loss. looking franticallly for things that are right under my nose, headaches...it took me 15 minutes to remember how my husband broke his neck!! my friends avoid my somewhat...i feel like a 2 year old i feel so vain worrying about my hair but it's a huge issue for me...HELP