# Bipolar and Lamictal

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bipolar-and-lamictal/214450>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 21, 2003, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bipolar-and-lamictal/214450 "2003-11-21T04:44:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HotRail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6bbea6/32.png) [@HotRail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HotRail)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bipolar-and-lamictal/214450/1 "2003-11-21T04:44:33Z")

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Hey, I’m diagnosed with bipolar disorder type II and my doctor just started me on Lamictal, and I was just wondering if anybody has had any experience with this drug and what you think about it, if there are any side effects or whatever, or wether or not it has helped on a long term basis. Thanks!

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**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bipolar-and-lamictal/214450/2 "2003-11-21T07:47:51Z")

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[http://www.lamictal.com/](http://www.lamictal.com/)

> **[Psychiatric Uses of Lamotrigine](https://www.psycom.net/depression.central.lamotrigine.html)**
>
> Lamotrigine is the only mood stabilizer that calms mood swings by lifting the depression rather than suppressing the mania. Two experts explain.

Lamictal is an anticonvulsant, and I think anticonvulsants tend to be some of the safer drugs in psychiatric use. Lamictal is supposedly particularly safe. You’ll have to read the cites (or sites, depending on how you look at it) to find out whether it helps on a long term basis. Googling Lamictal is good, and [erowid.org](http://erowid.org) (.com and .net also work) is also a good resource for drug info. Erowid is the first place I look for any drug info; it generally focuses more on drugs of abuse (which does not exclude bipolar disorder drugs—Gabapentin, an anticonvulsant used for bipolar disorder and other things, is included on Erowid). I couldn’t find Lamictal there, although I didn’t look under the generic name.  
Your local university library (preferably one in the School of Medicine or something similar) probably has the American Psychiatric Press Textbook of Psychopharmacology (the ‘Big Book of Psychiatric Drugs’) or something similar; that’s a good place to look too, although with the Textbook of Psychopharmacology in particular there probably won’t be anything on drugs newer than 1998 (which yours may or may not be). I don’t remember seeing Lamictal (lamotrigine) in that book, but I only looked in certain parts, and it may (for example) be in the “Treating Bipolar Disorder” section as opposed to the “Anticonvulsant Drugs” section.

Hope this helps.