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LAMICTAL® (lah-MICK-tall) Tablets are a medicine prescribed together with other medications to treat certain types of seizures (partial seizures, primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures, generalized seizures of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome) in people 2 years of age or older. LAMICTAL® may be prescribed alone while transitioning between different prescriptions to treat partial seizures in patients 16 years of age or older. It may also be for the long-term treatment of Bipolar I Disorder to lengthen the time between mood episodes in people 18 years of age or older (who have been treated for mood episodes with other medicine). LAMICTAL® - manufactured by United Kingdom-based GlaxoSmithKline – the active ingredient is lamotrigine. It is available in 25 mg, 100 mg, 150 mg, and 200 mg tablets (to be swallowed whole or split, but never chewed or crushed). In addition, LAMICTAL® ODT Orally Disintegrating tablets forms are the same dosages as above excluding 150 mg tablets (which should be placed on the tongue to rapidly dissolve). LAMICTAL® Chewable Dispersible tablets are available in 2 mg, 5 mg, and 25 mg (which may be swallowed whole, chewed or crushed, or mixed with water or dilute fruit juice).

As with any medication there are side-effects. These include (but not limited to) dizziness, headache, blurred or double vision, lack of coordination, sleepiness, nausea, vomiting, insomnia, tremor, rash, fever, abdominal pain, back pain, tiredness, and dry mouth.

The skin rash can be life threatening, and it is recommended that patients new to taking LAMICTAL® or similar lamotrigine products should start treatment on a low dosage (dependant on the weight of the patient) for one week and increase the number of milligrams in 25 mg. values per two days thereafter. Observations of rashes usually occurred within the first six weeks of lamotrigine treatment.

Most of the above forms of lamotrigine had been formulated over 10 years ago. The patent on prescription medications (approved by the Food and Drug Administration) is valid for 20 years before clinical trials (the effective protection of a drug is between seven and twelve years, on average). Thus most of the above tablets have a generic counterpart. It is not always recommended to administer generics of lamotrigine as the FDA sees that about ±10% of the active ingredient needs to be present to be a generic. For seizure medications, that difference may be enough to be ineffective – and must be present in its entirety for proper performance.