@sandij Yes, I am on Lamictal too 200 mg and Lexapo. I'm been pretty even out even though my surgery is coming up. I am happy and sometimes depressed, but everyone is depressed sometimes. I keep positive thinking.

Anyone who is having trouble with the side effects of meds or with meds that are not working for you should look into gene testing. Often times drugs don't work or have too many side effects because you can't metabolize them. Your particular make up the chemistry of your system, won't let the drugs work. There's a company called Genesight Testing and Mayo Clinic has their own form of gene auditing now as well. Not only will this testing tell you which drugs you would be able to metabolize best it can also tell you if your body will metabolize them too quickly leading too underdosing or metabolize them to slowly leading to overdosing.

It doesn't matter if your doctor is registered with Genesight or not. You go to their website and you put in your zip code and they will give you a list of doctors who have taken the 15 minutes on the phone for free to register with the Genesight company. This is what I had to do . I made an appointment with and visited a doctor on their list.
She gave me a cheek swab. When it was tested in return I went back to see her and she explained the report to me. Once I had my report I took it to my doctor and we adjusted my meds accordingly. That report is now a part of my permanent medical record and I have a copy as well If my doctor had been unwilling to look at my report or respond to my report I would have found a new doctor. Many doctors are under so much pressure that 15 minutes on the phone means that's one or two patients they can't see. I guess some doctors don't believe in the testing or have egos too large to allow the metric like this to suggest what they should prescribe for their patients.

The testing relates to three classes of drugs. Psychotropic meds for mental illness, antidepressants, and analgesics or pain meds.

The days of bouncing around from one drug to another trying to find one that works for you should be over. I don't know for a fact that this testing is perfect but it was perfect for me and for my son. Mine was covered by my insurance my son's was covered by his MA. I believe the most you can pay out-of-pocket is $360 but I could be wrong about that. If I had to pay that much I would still say, cheap at twice the price. I don't know what Mayo Clinic does but I know that the GeneSight company has a sliding fee scale.

The burden of having these conditions which we need to have treated is burden enough. We don't need to have it complicated by having to play guessing games to find out what we should be treated with.