Interactions may also cause one or more of the drugs to stop working normally. Taking the anticonvulsant and mood-stabilizing drugs valproic acid or divalproex sodium Depakene, Depakote along with Lamictal can double the amount of Lamictal that stays in your body. This effect can greatly increase your chances of side effects from Lamictal.
On the other hand, taking the anticonvulsant and mood-stabilizing drugs carbamazepine Tegretol , phenytoin Dilantin , phenobarbital Luminal , or primidone Mysoline along with Lamictal can decrease the levels of Lamictal in your body by about 40 percent. Estrogen-containing birth control pills and the antibiotic rifampin Rifadin also can decrease Lamictal levels by about 50 percent. These effects can greatly reduce how well Lamictal works to treat your symptoms of bipolar disorder.
If you have moderate liver or kidney damage, your body may not process Lamictal as well as it should. Your doctor may suggest a lower starting dosage or a different drug. Lamictal also passes into breast milk and may cause side effects in your child if you breastfeed. Talk to your doctor about the best way to feed your child if you take Lamictal.
Finding a drug that works well to treat your bipolar disorder that also causes the fewest side effects can be a challenge. If Lamictal is not the right drug for you and weight gain is a concern, talk to your doctor. Most other drugs for bipolar disorder do cause weight gain.
Your doctor may suggest healthy foods, exercises, or other techniques that could help you minimize weight gain. Bipolar medications that cause weight loss are rare. Learn about common drugs for bipolar disorder, how they affect weight, and other side effects. Learn about how alcohol interacts with Lamictal and how it affects bipolar disorder.
Common side effects of this drug also include:. Low risk of weight gain: Lurasidone has a low risk of weight gain. Other side effects of this drug may include the development of breasts in men, low blood pressure, and fainting. Risk of weight gain: Quetiapine can cause weight gain. Common side effects may also include:.
High risk of weight gain: Olanzapine is very likely to cause weight gain because it increases your appetite. Other common side effects can include:. There are several different drugs available to treat bipolar disorder. Most of them affect your weight, but many increase your risk of weight gain rather than weight loss. By making healthy choices in your diet and adding routine exercise, you may be able to minimize these effects. Many people with bipolar disorder often have to try several different drugs before finding one that works.
Talk to your doctor and balance your concerns about weight gain with the likelihood of a certain drug working well for you. This information will help your doctor understand which drugs are more likely to work well for you. Unintentional weight gain occurs when you put on weight without increasing your consumption of food or liquid and without decreasing your activity….
This should be reassuring to people with bipolar disorder since so many medications used to treat the condition can cause weight gain. Lamictal is an anticonvulsant medication that can be used to treat seizure disorders, such as epilepsy. It's also used as a mood stabilizer in bipolar disorder. Meanwhile, a study comparing the effects on weight of Lamictal, lithium , and a placebo found that obese patients taking Lamictal lost an average of four pounds, while non-obese patients' weight remained essentially the same.
Weight gain from drugs used to treat bipolar disorder is unfortunately pretty common. Certain mood stabilizers commonly used in bipolar disorder—specifically, lithium and Depakote valproate —carry a high risk of weight gain. In addition, the atypical antipsychotic medications Clozaril clozapine and Zyprexa olanzapine tend to cause significant weight gain in people taking them.
Finally, some antidepressants—specifically, Paxil paroxetine and Remeron mirtazapine —are associated with weight gain. Therefore, if you're already overweight, you and your psychiatrist may want to consider the possibility of additional weight gain in determining your medication regimen for your bipolar disorder.
On that basis alone, Lamictal may be a good choice. Lamictal also has been studied as a possible treatment for obesity in people without epilepsy or bipolar disorder. In a small clinical trial involving 40 people conducted in , researchers randomly assigned the participants to receive either Lamictal or a placebo for up to 26 weeks.
Everyone participating in the study had a body mass index BMI of between 30 and 40, which placed them in the obese to the severely obese range. Those taking Lamictal lost, on average, a little more than 10 pounds. Those taking the placebo, meanwhile, lost around seven pounds, so while those taking Lamictal lost more weight, they didn't lose all that much more. Another study, this one in , considered Lamictal as a treatment for binge-eating disorder. Those taking Lamictal lost more weight than those on the placebo about 2.
However, the Lamictal didn't seem to affect other aspects of their binge-eating disorder when compared to placebo. While more research is needed to determine if Lamictal might be beneficial as a weight-loss treatment, current research suggests that the medication may not cause significant weight loss that is common with some other bipolar medications.
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See all Posts in This Topic. Connect Get Social! Anyone with appetite increase or weight gain while getting on Lamictal? Living With Epilepsy - Adults.
Help- I started Lamictal to taper the Topamax that wasn't working and I am also on Dilantin and Birth control progesterone only and have gained pounds in the last 2 months! My appetite seems out of wack. Any other folks had this happen with Lamictal? Submitted by ifonemust on Sun, Submitted by breezie68 on Wed, Submitted by Seruzies on Fri, Submitted by breezie68 on Fri, Submitted by justinedc on Mon, Hi there, It is refreshing to read your posting, I have been on epilim for a year and a half and have put on 3 stone, I am so depressed and have done all sorts of diets and healthy eating, smaller portions, no booze, excercise, you name it Submitted by rosegirl on Mon, Submitted by honeybear on Sun,
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