Posted by fuchsia on July 11, 2006, at 5:19:20
In reply to Re: Lamictal and thinking, posted by SLS on July 9, 2006, at 8:01:30
Hello Scott
>
> > The only cognitive impairment that I can detect is a marked loss of dream recall.
>
> That's interesting. Did you experience an increase in dreaming when you first began taking Lamictal?
I'm not sure I did but then again as I was getting up into the larger doses I had a series of terrifyingly vivid nightmares which I ascribed to my new mattress and its annoying overheating problem. I haven't had the nightmares for quite some time now despite the fact that I still wake in the night cursing the mattress.Did you think the Lamictal could down regulate something that stimulates dreaming?
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> > The fact that this has happened makes me slightly concerned that there could be other cognitive impairment I'm not aware of.
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> This is a possibility. I found that the cognitive impairments crept up on me almost unnoticed. The other possibility is that the Lamictal has reduced the number of entries into REM sleep you experience in the morning, thus reducing your apparent memories of dreams. (Lamictal increases the total amount of time spent in REM, but reduces the number of episodes).
As you suggest there are probably now more times when I wake from non-REM sleep. Quite often though I do wake from REM sleep and I can only catch a tiny fragment of a dream and the rest is frustratingly inaccessible. In the past I remembered a lot more and if I did remember only a fragment I could remember a lot more with persistence.>
> Do you feel like you are thinking while in a fog or talking to others as if you were standing behind a veil?
Not really. I'm generally better than I was before I started taking it. I notice worse social phobia now which can produce those effects (in me). I am getting out a lot more though so it might not be the Lamictal.>
> > Anyway, I'd like to go back down to about 200mgs but I don't see how I could do this as I think it would have to be done gradually and thus the rebound depression could be prolonged. Do you think this would be the case? I'm not sure what I should do as I'm already getting severe patches at the moment.
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> Gosh. I'm sorry things aren't so peachy for you at the moment. Perhaps this isn't the ideal time for you to make any changes. Is it a situational thing or a biological thing?It's definitely biological.
If it is a biological thing, there might not be any better time than the present, you know? Maybe you can reduce the dosage of Lamictal by 25mg a week. From my experience, this would help to prevent a rebound depression. Any worsening should be mild and last a day or two at the most. I am betting that you will be OK with that.
>
I think when I do it I'll do it the way you suggest but maybe not right now. I don't think I can cope with the depression getting worse than it already is when it's bad. Maybe when the days get longer here will be a better time.fuchsia
poster:fuchsia
thread:650415
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060709/msgs/665972.html