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Anyone on Lamotrigine and/or Pramiprexol for Major Depression Disordee
I've had treatment resistant major depressive disorder probably all my life. But it took decades of medication trials to find something that helped. I've been on every antidepressant they make. Prozac actually helped me for about three years. Then it pooped out. These two drugs are not typically used for depression But they have been approved for that. Lamotrigine is an anti-seizure med and Pramiprexol is a Parkinson's drug of all things. It's been 6 years on this regimen and I'm wondering if it's starting to affect my memory. I'm 71 and feel like something has shifted with my cognitive abilities. Curious if anybody has or knows someone who has taken either of these drugs? God bless you all & Merry Christmas! 🎄
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@louisy Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect.
I will say that I have not been on any of these medications you are talking about. But what I do know, is that often our bodies may "get used to" a regimen, and then no longer be as effective. And that can go for any medication. And if we are prescribed additional medications for other conditions, they might interact with something we are already taking.
Have you spoken to the prescribing doctor to let them know your thoughts, and see if there is some testing they can do? What do you do now to help you with your memory and critical thinking? Crossword puzzles? Learning new things?
Ginger
I was on Effexor for over twenty years, and for the last three of those it turned me suicidal, something no one, not even my psychiatrist, picked up on. She had kept me on Effexor after I was hospitalized a year-and-a-half ago. I quit it in a suicidal rage last winter genuinely wanting to wreck my life and, despite the wicked withdrawal symptoms (I do not advise doing what I did, it's miserable), within a few days the suicidal depression lifted. What happened to me has been shown to occur in rare occasions with antidepressants, and after finding NIH and BMJ articles about this, I refused to even consider going back on it.
I told my psychiatrist that while I was glad to be rid of the antidepressant and would not take any medication in that class again, I did feel like I'd stripped off my armor. She suggested Lamotrigine, and I decided to give it a go. This sequence of events occurred between late February and early March of last year. I started logging my moods on this program, which I can't recommend enough: https://www.moodtracker.com/. I have daily data going back to March 2.
My experience was twofold. My overall outlook improved almost immediately after quitting the Effexor, and I went from daily thoughts of suicide to absolutely zero since. So we know the Effexor was driving that. My mood also improved gradually as the Lamotrigine was introduced, a six week process for me, and I have been absolutely stable for roughly nine months now.
How much of this is thanks to getting off of Effexor and how much has to do with the Lamotrigine is something I cannot pinpoint since there's a mix there. But depression, which I've dealt with since childhood (I'm now 60) is flat gone. I was never particularly suicidal until the Effexor turned on me in 2021. There were three years there that I'm frankly thankful to have survived (it came scary close), and there's no way I'd upset the current balance to find out if it's primarily the Lamotrigine, primarily quitting the antidepressant, or a 50/50 mix of the two that got me where I am.
Kind of vague, but that's been my experience. I have not noticed any side effects of the Lamotrigine, but I haven't been taking it as long as you have and am not taking Pramiprexol, so I cannot speak to that part.
I hope this helps.