5# 伊犁春风
掉线中。。。
【WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 07, 2007
Yes, Lamictal does cause tremors
Here's the results of a poll I put up a month or 2 ago. OK, so my PDoc was very quick to point out that a sample group of 53 is very far from drawing any scientific conclusions. But you know what Mrs PDoc - I trust these grassroots surveys way more than the drug company organised ones.
From the day I started taking Lamictal (aka Lamactil, Lamictan) 2 years ago - the hand tremmors started. But PDoc said NO, this particular side effect was not documented for Lamictal. My question is this though - how long do adverse side effects take to filter into the little accompanying drug info leaflets? No brainer - as long as possible if the drug co.s have any thing to do with it.
Indeed the whole Fckn irony of the thing is that the only reason us BiPolars are prescribed Lamictal is because curing BiPolar is a side effect of this anti-epileptic drug that was only discovered by accident way after the fact. But positive side-effects obviously get to press much quicker.
Man, I was so worried about these hand shakes that I even went to see a Neurologist a few months ago, fearing that I may have early onset Parkinsons. She did the whole barrage of knee-tapping and elbow-tapping tests on me and I was cleared (thank the gods!) of Parkinson's. When I told her about the Lamictan, she grabbed out her drug book (she's not a psychiatrist after all) and said "No, hand tremors is not listed here as a side-effect of Lamictal". Back to square fckn One.
She eventually diagnosed my condition as Essential Familial Tremor , which does, I suppose, have some credence as my Dad and Uncle have slight hand tremors too (although in your 70s whaddya expect??)
She said my tremors were likely to worsen with age. What was really weird is that she said there did happen to be one medication I could take to reduce the hand shake and that was... wait for it.....Topamax! Yeah, another former anti-epileptic now also used as a mood stabiliser. I mean how coincidental is that, especially seen as my Pdoc had once considered Topamax for my bipolar.
So I went back to PDoc with my story and she said i could switch to Topamax if I wanted to to. Or maybe even mix it into the daily routine.
But in the end I decided to put up with the friggin handshakes. As the neurologist said: "they're certainly not life threatening in any way." And I THINK Lamactil is helping my BiPolar (although I'll probably never know for certain) so I'm not gonna meddle with it. Maybe one day if my own biz doesn't work out and I'm forced to get a job I'll have to go the Topamax route, because as things stand shake now, I wouldn't even get past the first interview.】
【THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2010
Lamictal DOES cause hand tremors
Over the past year I have gently tapered down my Lamictal from 250mg daily to 125mg. On the recent 150 to 125mg drop I noticed that my hand tremors (which have been plaguing me ever since I started taking Lamictal) improved considerably. To the extent that I'm not even self-conscious in coffee shops anymore. And that's the other point - coffee. Right in the beginning whenever I mentioned the hand shakes to anybody remotely medically enlightened they urged me to come off caffeine. I did. However, since stopping weed, and its major energising factor for me, I've re-taken up coffee. In a big way! 7 strong filter coffees a day. Despite this - my hand tremors still decreased.
And just to really drive the nail home: I hit a patch of depression about a month ago and assuming that it was due to dropping from 150 Lamictal to 125, I went back onto 150. Guess what!!! The tremors started again! So I'm back down to 125 and ..... guess what.... they've stopped again.
As a very keen photographer you can't imagine how happy I am about this development. Shaky hands are probably the worst impediment a photographer can have.
So, to all Big Pharma participants - including PDocs, GPs, chemists et al:
You can give me all the fckn stats you want claiming that tremor is not a side effect of Lamictal. In my case - you're speaking Bull Poo!!】 |