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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 6 of 6. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by woolav on July 27, 2005, at 8:01:14
I have been taking it for a while now and for some reason, it makes it very hard for me to wake up in the morning. Even if i have a decent amount of sleep, i still feel like I havent slept but for a few hours when i wake up. Has anyone else on this med experianced this and will it ever go away?? I take 300 mg at bedtime, along with my lamictal.
????? Yawn..............
s
Posted by med_empowered on July 27, 2005, at 16:12:43
In reply to Whats up with Trileptal??, posted by woolav on July 27, 2005, at 8:01:14
I used to take 1,200mgs trileptal at bedtime...later, I took 600mgs at night and 300in the morning...I had somewhat similar problems to you for a few days, but they went away really quickly. Are you taking any other sedating medications? That could be compounding the problem. Usually, Trileptal is divided up into AM and PM doses, with most of it dosed in the PM...in your case, though, it might be worth trying either an even split between AM and PM (150/150) or possibly taking the PM dose of Trileptal a couple hours *before* you take the Lamictal; this might allow your body to metabolize it a bit more thoroughly before you go to bed, so then you wont have the same problems with sedation.
Posted by Phillipa on July 27, 2005, at 21:20:11
In reply to Re: Whats up with Trileptal??, posted by med_empowered on July 27, 2005, at 16:12:43
Hey woolav is it good for depression? Fondly, Phillipa
Posted by woolav on July 28, 2005, at 9:03:20
In reply to Re: Whats up with Trileptal??, posted by Phillipa on July 27, 2005, at 21:20:11
I do take 250 mg of lamictal at night as well, and then I also split the trileptal dose. 300 in the AM and 300 in the PM. Could it be the combination of the 2 that is causing this? I even stopped taking my bedtime klonopin because of this.
????
Posted by woolav on July 28, 2005, at 9:04:23
In reply to Re: Whats up with Trileptal?? med enpowered!!, posted by woolav on July 28, 2005, at 9:03:20
I do think it has helped with depression/mood swings. I havent been able to really cry or anything. I have had anger issues though. But, not depression...
Sandy
Posted by med_empowered on July 28, 2005, at 15:36:18
In reply to Re: Whats up with Trileptal?? med enpowered!!, posted by woolav on July 28, 2005, at 9:03:20
I used to take Trileptal with a cocktail of other meds at nite--not lamictal, but serqoeul sometimes, ambien, klonopin, neurontin, celexa, that kind of thing. Anyway, I did find that there were "synergistic" effects...basically, sometimes I could take something that was more or less non-drowsy with the Trileptal, and *BAM*, I got hit with the usual Trileptal sedation and a little extra. Weird. So, yeah, combining lamictal and trileptal could very well be part of the problem. Some people do 3X dosing...I imagine if you did something like a 300-150-150 split things might get better. How helpful is the lamictal? I'm just curious...I thought about it, but apparently the Trileptal induces liver enzymes that metabolize Lamictal over-efficiently...end result: you need bigger lamictal doses to get the same effect, which would presumably also cause side effect problems. You could lower your trileptal dose overall....you'd have less overall sedation, which would presumably help at nite. Then again you might also have more mood-swings, anxiety, etc. Its really a gamble. It could also be an "adjustment" phase...if this is the case, temporary adjunctive medication could help. Some docs will temporarily RX stimulants (Ritalin, Dexedrine, Adderall) to patients who find themselves over-sedated by needed medications. My own preference here would be for Provigil, or a stimulating Antidepressant such as Wellbutrin XL at a moderate-to-high dose in the AM. Good luck!
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