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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 11 of 11. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by david black on August 29, 2004, at 8:23:22
for the last six months or so i have noticed a lot of hair falling out of my head in the shower and if i just run my hair through my head, and it seems that it's thinning out a bit in certain parts,
the only change in my medication cocktail has been the addition of lamictal, i am now up to 200 mg
i have been on depakote forever, and i know this is a typical side effect but it has never caused me any problems
so i really don't think it's the depakote,
any opinions or replies would be great
thanks
take care dave
Posted by prodgirl on August 30, 2004, at 17:58:58
In reply to possible lamictal hair loss?, posted by david black on August 29, 2004, at 8:23:22
At first, I didn't notice the hair loss, but now that I am up to 400mg, it is hard not to notice. I am a woman with short hair, and tossle it a good deal during my high stress job. Hair is all over my desk the past four weeks. Not to the point where I have gaping holes, thank god. Just noticable.
> for the last six months or so i have noticed a lot of hair falling out of my head in the shower and if i just run my hair through my head, and it seems that it's thinning out a bit in certain parts,
>
> the only change in my medication cocktail has been the addition of lamictal, i am now up to 200 mg
>
> i have been on depakote forever, and i know this is a typical side effect but it has never caused me any problems
>
> so i really don't think it's the depakote,
>
> any opinions or replies would be great
>
> thanks
>
> take care dave
Posted by zana on September 1, 2004, at 16:29:50
In reply to Re: possible lamictal hair loss?, posted by prodgirl on August 30, 2004, at 17:58:58
are you anywhere near menopause? so many meds list hair loss as potential SE. alopecia is listed as infrequent SE in the product info insert and, as we know, anything is possible. what a drag. i am taking 50mgs of lamictal and it has been a huge help with my mood. of course i am slightly nauseous half day.
any tips on nausea?
gd luck.
Posted by prodgirl on September 2, 2004, at 1:23:59
In reply to Re: possible lamictal hair loss?, posted by zana on September 1, 2004, at 16:29:50
No, I am only 28, and although it in noticable, I am a redhead with LOTS of hair. No worries about it, yet.
When I was on Effexor, I was sick all the time, lots of car and motion sickness. Even now, since I got off the evil E, I still find that I get car sick very often. Try drinking water to get something in your belly, deep breathing. My pdoc gave me an rx for Compazine, but I have never felt so horrible that I had to take it (plus, the big side effect is a temporary (4-6hr) paralizing of your neck...too scary!)
> are you anywhere near menopause? so many meds list hair loss as potential SE. alopecia is listed as infrequent SE in the product info insert and, as we know, anything is possible. what a drag. i am taking 50mgs of lamictal and it has been a huge help with my mood. of course i am slightly nauseous half day.
> any tips on nausea?
> gd luck.
>
Posted by dleerl on September 17, 2004, at 10:31:25
In reply to possible lamictal hair loss?, posted by david black on August 29, 2004, at 8:23:22
Well you can add me to the list of people who are losing hair due to using lamictal. I am taking other meds but none which have this side effect nor which coincided with the timing of my starting lamictal. My hair is coming out in gobs. Every time I wash my hair my fingers are loaded with hair. I always filled the drain in the bathtub as I showered. However, my hair never came out in my hands and fingers. It's absolutely disgusting. The odd thing is that I took lamictal before for almost 3 years and never had this side effect. Had to stop it because I suddently broke out all over my body with huge welts of hives that itched terribly. They just reintroduced me to lamictal in April because I need a second mood stabilizer and the list was practically non-existent.
My med provider looked this up when I complained of the hair loss and it is listed under lamictal.
Don't know what to do about it. I once saw an article about something that doctors give patients along with depakote to prevent hairloss. I think it was a vitamin or mineral. Wish I could find that again. Maybe it could help us. If I find it, I'll post it here.Donna
Posted by cateb on September 20, 2004, at 2:10:01
In reply to Re: possible lamictal hair loss?, posted by dleerl on September 17, 2004, at 10:31:25
OK, another vote for Lamictal causing hair loss. Been bad for six months. I had this right away when I was on Depakote, even more dramatic (if possible).
In this case, I was on L. for a year before I started to get serious side effects, but I still think this is from the med. My other increasing side effects are GI related: chronic diarrhea (started when hair loss did), GERD very recent, more weight loss. It seemed to correlate to me moving from 125 to 150 mgs. I am dropping now to see if it helps.
c.
Posted by mdn312 on September 30, 2004, at 23:25:39
In reply to Re: possible lamictal hair loss?, posted by dleerl on September 17, 2004, at 10:31:25
I think you are talking about zinc and selenium. You can take Centrum Silver also (it has zinc and selenium)
Melissa
I once saw an article about something that doctors give patients along with depakote to prevent hairloss. I think it was a vitamin or mineral. Wish I could find that again. Maybe it could help us. If I find it, I'll post it here.
>
> Donna
Posted by Dave001 on October 1, 2004, at 16:38:25
In reply to Re: possible lamictal hair loss?, posted by cateb on September 20, 2004, at 2:10:01
> OK, another vote for Lamictal causing hair loss. Been bad for six months. I had this right away when I was on Depakote, even more dramatic (if possible).
Concerning Depakote: there is evidence of reduced biotinidase activity from valproic acid, and biotin supplementation may help. The authors of the study (link to abstract below) observed an improvement in their patients with 10 mg/day of biotin supplementation.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11737173&dopt=Abstract
Here's a link to another study: "Serum copper, zinc, selenium, glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase levels in epileptic children before and after 1 year of sodium valproate and carbamazepine therapy"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11823111
The authors of this study didn't find any changes in the levels of Cu, Zn, Se, GSH-PX, or SOD before or after treatment in 36 epileptic children, so I'm not sure whether zinc would be of much help. I've read about alterations in zinc metabolism caused by valproic acid, but I've never researched this topic, so for all I know, it may be a problem of too much zinc. You would definitely want to check on that before supplementing with extra zinc. I would add biotin, though.Now for Lamictal: I think anyone taking Lamictal or other mood-stabilizers would be smart to consume plenty of folic acid, whether or not it helps against hair loss. It wouldn't surprise me if biotin was useful against lamotrigine-induced hair loss as well.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12724046Dave
Posted by terrics on October 2, 2004, at 20:39:06
In reply to possible lamictal hair loss?, posted by david black on August 29, 2004, at 8:23:22
My hair is also falling out. I was taking lithium when it first started...bald spots and scabs on my head. So MD stopped lithium. Without either my hair got much better. Now I am on lamictal and it is worse then ever. I am desperate for help with this. (pdoc said use selenium. It did not work. terrics
Posted by maryhelen on October 5, 2004, at 7:51:10
In reply to Re: possible lamictal hair loss? » david black, posted by terrics on October 2, 2004, at 20:39:06
terrcis:
I also was taking lithium when I first started to have hair loss. Hair coming right out in my hands. What a sick feeling. Not so much because of the hair loss, but the lithium wasn't working so pdoc took me off and I went on Lamitcal. Hair loss continued for a while, but after years of trying pretty much every antidepressant out there, the Lamitcal started working, and it worked very early, within 2 weeks of taking it. For the first time in my life I knew what it was like not to be depressed. It was a rather frightening feeling, oddly enough. This would have been last spring, in March. We went up to about 150 mg. which seemed to be a good place to be. Beginning six weeks later, I could feel that sickening feeling, physically in my stomach, that the depression was returning. The response lasted about 8 weeks, and despite going as high as 400 mg., I have never had the it happen, again. I even felt at the time, as my hair was falling out, that I would go bald, but could feel like this, I would get a wig.
I have since been put on methadone, due to taking too many pain pills for chronic pain, but also because they helped the depression. The pdocs also thought that it may help the depression and we are trying this out. I still take 150 mg. of Lamitcal a day ........ why, I really do not know.
I have had gray hair for many years and was reluctant to start colouring it because I would have to do it thereafter. I also felt that I would lose more hair. I decided to do it anyway, as I looked about 10 years older that I am ....... vanity won out. What happened instead, is for some reason, after I got my hair coloured, it stopped falling out. I wondered at first, but subsequently, every month or so, the hair stays put. I don't know why this would happen, as one would think the opposite. I have had a drop in income, and have not been able to get my hair coloured. Sure enough, after not having it coloured for about 3 months, my hair is falling out again.
What wierd, wierd, experiences we seem to get, in varying degrees, from all of these medications we take.
Hope I have made sense ...... feeling really depressed this morning.
maryhelen
A little long .... sorry. Tbought I would share.
Posted by terrics on November 17, 2004, at 14:07:02
In reply to terrics .... hair loss lamitcal, posted by maryhelen on October 5, 2004, at 7:51:10
Hi MaryEllen, Sorry I missed your post on lamictal and hair. If you want to email dogsandcatsmany@yahoo.com terrics
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