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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by MattA on December 26, 2003, at 8:00:57
Hi,
Yesterday, by accident, I found out that the bitter taste of the Lamictal Dispers tablets is completely masked by eating some chocolate cake before drinking the water with the dissolved tablets. I can't try if this extends to other kinds of meds, but I assume it will work for any other med that tastes bitter. Probably doesn't have to be cake either, but that's just what I tried :-) Thought it might be helpful to mention this for others.
Taste never was such a big deal to me, but somehow this changed a while ago to the point that now I'm (physically) unable to take one of my meds (Movicolon) without masking it strongly. I used to be able to take this med without any trouble in the past. Has anyone experienced such an unexplicable change as well at some point?
I'm even wondering whether the change might be caused by the Lamictal itself as a weird side effect. All of this started roughly when I got to the higher doses of Lamimctal (500 mg now).
Since I have the same problem with Lithium, any helpful hints on masking its taste are very much appreciated. I'm now taking it with orange juice pulp, but it's not perfect.
Thanks,
MattA
Posted by SLS on December 26, 2003, at 8:21:46
In reply to Lamictal and (its) taste, posted by MattA on December 26, 2003, at 8:00:57
Hi.
One of the side-effects of Lamictal (lamotrigine) is "taste-perversion". It changes the way things taste and can intensify taste. For instance, for a while I couldn't drink plain water because it tasted like salt water. It made good things taste bad. (I don't remember it making bad things taste good :-)). This effect eventually disappeared, but it took quite a few weeks.
- Scott
Posted by Flipsactown on December 27, 2003, at 6:11:02
In reply to Re: Lamictal and (its) taste, posted by SLS on December 26, 2003, at 8:21:46
Scott,
Are you taking lamictal for depression and what dosage are you on currently. I am taking it for depression and am currently on 300mg. I tried 400mg briefly and experienced no difference and so I went back down to 300mg. I have been also taking 90mg remeron and 100mg prozac along with the lamictal for unipolar depression for over three months and have been relatively depression free. Do you know or have you heard if lam poops out like all the others? Thanks.
Flipsactown
> Hi.
>
> One of the side-effects of Lamictal (lamotrigine) is "taste-perversion". It changes the way things taste and can intensify taste. For instance, for a while I couldn't drink plain water because it tasted like salt water. It made good things taste bad. (I don't remember it making bad things taste good :-)). This effect eventually disappeared, but it took quite a few weeks.
>
>
> - Scott
Posted by SLS on December 27, 2003, at 8:53:52
In reply to Re: Lamictal and (its) taste » SLS, posted by Flipsactown on December 27, 2003, at 6:11:02
Hi.
> Are you taking lamictal for depression and what dosage are you on currently.
I have been diagnosed as having bipolar depression. I am currently taking:
Lamictal 150-200mg
imipramine 300mg
Zoloft 100mg
Abilify 10mgI am trying to see how low I can go with Lamictal. I had been taking 300mg for three years before I realized how badly it was affecting my memory and cognition. I am hoping that I can get away with 100mg. 200mg is probably the average effective dosage for bipolar depression. I don't know if this dosage applies to unipolar depression.
It seems that Lamictal monotherapy almost never produces an adequate sustained antidepressant response. People often experience and amazing response early in treatment at low dosages. However, the response has a tendency to plateau and dissipate within a few weeks to a few months, regardless of how high one raises the dosage. My guess is that when used with the other medications you are taking, you are likely to retain the improvement that Lamictal has given you.
I wish you continued success with your treatment.
- Scott
Posted by MattA on December 27, 2003, at 13:34:35
In reply to Re: Lamictal and (its) taste, posted by SLS on December 26, 2003, at 8:21:46
Hi Scott,
Thanks for your reply. I've been on this dose for more than two months now. Since that dose is quite high, 500 mg, I hope it will ever go away. It's strange that anything else tastes quite normal. I think I'll consider switching to lithium citrate despite the higher cost. The tablets we have here are coated and citrate by itself is already much more friendly to the tastebuds than carbonate. At our lab we once measured the pH of a solution of a 400mg lithiumcarbonate tablet in a liter of water. It came out as >11 ! I'm therefore very curious to see if switching to citrate will also stop my extreme cravings for sour things. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.
MattA
> Hi.
>
> One of the side-effects of Lamictal (lamotrigine) is "taste-perversion". It changes the way things taste and can intensify taste. For instance, for a while I couldn't drink plain water because it tasted like salt water. It made good things taste bad. (I don't remember it making bad things taste good :-)). This effect eventually disappeared, but it took quite a few weeks.
>
>
> - Scott
This is the end of the thread.
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