This came up months ago but has been more seriously followed up on. As Philip says on Furious Seasons it's unclear if this is to be a "black box" warning yet, the most serious of warnings on pharmaceuticals. These are the "mood-stabilizers" that were first created as anti-convulsants. "The risk of suicidal thoughts or behavior... Continue Reading →
Lamictal no better than placebo
GlaxoSmithKline, manufacturer of lamotrigine (Lamictal), the antiepileptic drug used widely for bipolar disorder, happily hid clinical trial results which found Lamictal was no better than a placebo. Given recent findings about how often pharmaceutical companies selectively push positive results to publication in medical journals while suppressing negative results, this can hardly be considered a surprise. It is nonetheless instructive to examine how the published data on Lamictal paint a much rosier picture of the drug's efficacy compared to unpublished data....
Yes, recovery can be lasting and real
Part of the reason some people are so skeptical about real and complete recoveries is because a lot of people who achieve it move on. The don't hang around the mental health blogosphere and most of them don't go into working in mental health like I probably will. Most of them go off and live... Continue Reading →
Moving towards wellness
Well, I've talked about how the Klonopin (clonazepam) seems to be making me sick at this point and that theory seems to be holding up. It was also that theory that had my last doctor have me recklessly cold-turkey a couple of months ago. The thing is she wasn't all wrong. I am toxic on... Continue Reading →
Down to one med: journey off psych drug cocktail
So I tried to go off Lamictal at 2.5 mg a couple of weeks ago and had some sleepless nights like I wrote about. So I went back on half of it I've cut the 1.25 mg in half 3 times now and am truly off all of it now. (just to remind you---I was on 400 mg) So I have only 2.5 my of Klonopin to go.
The first incarnation of my blog….
When I first started blogging I was on blogspot and it was set on private and I deleted the whole thing before I went public. It was basically just a diary. What I didn't remember was that I copied the whole thing into a word document. It dates from February 2004 to June of 2006.... Continue Reading →
Lamictal (lamotrigine) withdrawal–update
The post that gets the most hits (for many years) is the one entitled "Lamictal withdrawal from hell." My post and Philip's posts at Furious Seasons (now available on this site) both have long ongoing commentary. People are struggling and don't know what to do when it comes to Lamictal withdrawal. Virtually all physical debilitating symptoms can be traced back to when I first started tapering 400 mgs of Lamictal.
It’s so close I can taste it
And yet these are some of the most despairing times I've had as well. I've gotten off 5 drugs. I'm down to 5 mg of Lamictal (from 400mg) and I've got the 3 mg of Klonopin to go. I should be off the Lamictal in a few days. Every night when I take the Klonopin... Continue Reading →
Random anger, random ramblings and incompleted thoughts
When I was at my acupuncturists the other day I basically collapsed on the table after pounding on her office door when I couldn't tolerate sitting in the office. I REALLY needed to lay down. I can sit in recliner type chairs but an upright chair I can last in only so long and I... Continue Reading →
Short and sweet update
I'm off all the "emergency meds." It took 12 days---pretty damn awesome if you ask me! Strangely enough, or perhaps not, I slept totally shitty after the first couple of "knock-out" nights until I was completely off the Risperdal on Sunday night. Sunday night was the first restful deep sleep I had. Clearly Risperdal, while... Continue Reading →
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