Posted by Solstice on December 13, 2011, at 13:13:36
In reply to Re: lamictal withdrawal effects? any experiences? » Solstice, posted by Dinah on December 13, 2011, at 8:36:31
> It's mostly perceptions, and sometimes feelings. Never a loss of consciousness. Fleeting visual disturbances like straight lines briefly appearing curved or angled. Impressions of movement in still objects. Smelling things that aren't there. Intense feelings that last at most a few minutes, more like moments. Each one very brief, but recurring. I really don't like to talk about them because they make me feel a bit crazy. Yet I'm totally aware of what's going on, and recognize that I've missed a few Lamictal and am sleeping too little.
What you are describing sounds very much like the symptoms of 'simple partial epilepsy.' It is a focal discharge, usually in the temporal lobe, that is very brief and does not result in loss of consciousness. Symptoms can range from visual hallucinations, to odd smells and tastes, to unusual sensations like de ja vu, to brief but intense emotions like anxiety, fear, even joy, that even the patient is aware that there is nothing going on around them to provoke the emotion.Lamictal, being an anticonvulsant, may be relieving the symptoms, and they resume when you miss a few doses. If I were you, I would talk to a neurologist about it, and ask for an EEG. It's a simple, relatively inexpensive test that could explain a lot of the difficulties you have, incluing the emisis phobia. Simple partial epilepsy can develop any time after age 1. Frequently, it follows a head injury (i.e. falling off a bike), or the development of physical problems like endocrine disorders (diabetes) and migraines.
I'd really encourage you to explore that if you can, because it sure would be nice to have a concrete explanation for the kinds of symptoms you're describing. And if you get an EEG, be sure to ask for one where you are off the Lamictal and any other anticonvulsants you might be taking. Let me know if you decide to do something like that, and I'll give you some guidance (I am in the field of neurophysiology).
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> I figure I really should be more careful, and worry there may be lasting damage.I don't think you're at risk for damage (if it's what I suspect). The important thing would be to know where the discharges are, and to treat it. The problem with seizures (the brain's neurons firing in sync), is that if it lasts more than ten consecutive minutes, the risk for damage to the brain gets very high. More troublesome is the fact that many types of seizures do not include physical manifestation... which means the brain can be seizing and the patient and family members may be completely unaware. Absence seizures are like that, because the primary manifestation is silence - a person completely 'pauses' during the seizure. No stiffening or jerking. And with simple partial seizures, it involves the senses... and can also involve somatosensory sensations (stomach feels weird, feel sick to stomach). The ictal discharges are taking place during the symptoms.. i.e. if you suddenly smell something weird, or are suddenly overcome by a strong and unexplainable emotion, that is when the discharge is taking place. If it only lasts a few moments, or a minute or two, then it's no big deal. You just don't want to smell that weird smell or have that weird taste in your mouth for ten minutes. Make sense?
Let me know if you have any questions, and I think it would be a good idea to check it out. You may have developed this a long time ago, and the lamictal has been addressing it as a 'side effect' of its psychotherapeutic effect. :-)
Solstice.
poster:Solstice
thread:1004586
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20111208/msgs/1004878.html