How much lamictil?

[jannie]

Once again--we are thinking about starting a mood stabilizer for difficult child 2. We've been discussing this for over a year...I have been resistent. We actually filled a prescription for Lamictil last night...We've been discussing trileptal/lamictil.

Although my youngest is on trileptal...I decided to go with Lamictil....(Maybe)

I'm just wondering how many mg your kids are taking?

Thanks-

 

[smallworld]

Jannie, my daughter takes 125 mg daily (75 mg morning and 50 mg evening) with 7.5 mg Lexapro. My son takes 400 mg (200 mg BID) for treatment-resistant depression that responded negatively to all antidepressants.

Just remember to start low and go slow to avoid the dreaded S-J rash. We started at 12.5 mg and went up in 12.5 mg increments every two weeks. In addition, there can be hyperactivity/activation with every increase that tends to resolve after a few days.

Good luck.

 

[jannie]

SW
Thanks for the update regarding the hyperactivity...

The doctor said to start at 25 mg, but I think I'll cut it in half. He did say increase it very slowly. At this point he said to stop at 50 mg...I need to find out if he should take it in the morning or the evening....

This new p-doctor does 45 minute appointment. -- even medication checks are 30 min instead of 15 min. Hopefully a change will be good.

 

[smallworld]

Our psychiatrists always recommended starting it in the morning because of possible activation, which can keep kids up at night.

Hope the new psychiatrist works out well.

 

[crazymama30]

My difficult child is on 200mg once a day, but when husband took it he took the same dose and had good results, he had to stop it for other reasons but may go back to it.

 

[Nancy]

My difficult child takes 300 mg. We had been splitting the dose AM and PM but she was forgetting it too many times in the PM due to other activities/sleepovers, so the dr changed it to one dose in the AM.

At her next medication visit I'm going to ask about weaning her down to 200 because we lost our prescription drug covereage in our health insurance plan and lamictal does not come in a 300mg dose so we have to get 60 pills of 150 mg and the cost is prohibitive. Even for 30 pills of 200 mg we will be paying about $200 a month.

Lamictal has worked well for difficult child. Her psychiatrist explain ed that they call it the peel away drug because they often find it works so well that they can begin peeling away some of the other medications. I hope you have success with it.

The one thing I will caution you about is that it begins to melt as soon as you put it in your mouth so my difficult child puts it way in the back of her throat, otherwise as soon as she takes a drink it melts and it's hard to swallow.

Nancy

 

[Baffled]

Hi, Jannie. My difficult child takes 100 mg once and he takes it at night. He was on 25 mg until this year, then they slowly brought it up to 100 mg. Go to new psychiatrist tomorrow though. We'll see after that.

 

[CrazyinVA]

My daughter takes 200 mg when she's at her best dose. There is a starter pack they can give you, that has 4-5 weeks (I forget) of pills, you punch out the correct dose each day and it titrates up to 100 mg. Best part is the starter pack is free .. I would check with the psychiatrist on that.

 

[4sumrzn]

My difficult child takes 125mg in the am & 125mg in the pm. FYI for all others paying without insurance (I think I've mentioned before though).....25mg comes in generic!!!!!!! I know it means extra pills a day, but they are small & even chewable (my difficult child doesn't chew them though). Anyway, I'm not sure of the cash difference, but it saves me $50 a month on the copay for insurance.

 

[gcvmom]

My difficult child is on a pretty low dose -- 50mg/day, all in the morning -- because it was introduced as an adjunct to Depakote ER. He started with the starter pack that was mentioned previously. He began with 25mg every other day for a week, then every day for a week, then 50mg every other day for a week, then every day. The slow titration is recommended because of a rare but severe, life-threatening rash that can develop. The issue is supposedly magnified if it's taken with Depakote.

 

[Wiped Out]

My difficult child takes 200mg/day. At one point we tried splitting it but it really didn't seem to make a difference if it were all at once or split.

 

[jannie]

Thank you all for your replies !!! The night has past and I did not start yet....I do have the free starter pack...it seems like there really is a range of dosages....

I am so exhausted...so many doctor appts...it is out of control. Tonight was therapy for difficult child 2. Tomorrow is speech for difficult child 1 and a specialist appointment for difficult child 2...

Calgon--take me away !!!