Experiences with Lamictal / Lamotrigine? Can It Make Tinnitus Worse?

Hi,

I am in a bad space right now. I saw a Doctor who wants me to take Lamictal to help lift and balance my mood. He has diagnosed me with Bipolar. He said that Lamictal is an Antiepileptic but also used as a mood stabilizer and that is acts more as an antidepressant, bringing your lows up and balancing your mood.

He said out of all the mood stabilizers, Lamictal is the least to cause or worsen tinnitus and that he has never had a patient who has suffered from tinnitus due to Lamictal.

Unfortunately, the internet is littered with people posting that Lamictal has both caused and helped their tinnitus.

My tinnitus is at a level where it is bearable. My tinnitus is largely anxiety based. So I know if I start this med, I will be on edge and my tinnitus will increase just because I will be worried about it and I will not be able to differentiate whether it is the med or anxiety spiking it.

Just wondering if any users out there have any experience with Lamictal?

It was actually used in a study as a potential treatment for tinnitus.

It is weird, I am on two meds that are listed to cause tinnitus and have been on them for years prior to tinnitus and they have never caused me any issues. Propranolol and Clonidine. Propranolol is another that has both caused and helped some in regards to their tinnitus.

I wonder if you have tinnitus, if that makes you more susceptible to the potential effects of a medication that can cause tinnitus etc.?

 

Don't do it. If you are depressed, vape a lot, listen to music, don't take any medicine that has the potential to worsen tinnitus. In the meantime, gather 3000 euros and fly to Dublin, Ireland and get the Neuromod Lenire.

 

Thanks for your response. I am not into vaping. I don’t like the feeling of cannabis. It makes me feel very paranoid and anxious. I know it works very well for some people. I have tried all kinds of strains, just doesn’t click with my brain chemistry.

Thanks for the suggestion nonetheless.

 

Vaping is not smoking cannabis. Vaping is electronic cigarettes. They are safer than both cannabis and cigarettes.

 

At least in the US, people are dying from vaping. The vitamin E oil and other additives in them result in illness (a kind of pulmonary pneumonitis) and occasionally death.

 

Any source?

 

It's been all over the news in the US, vaping has been banned pretty much everywhere. There have been several deaths. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/severe-lung-disease.html

 

Lamictal had no effect on my tinnitus whatsoever. I hope you feel better soon, no matter what you decide!

 

Pretty much every news outlet in the US has covered this and the CDC has issued a warning but here is the wiki on it. It covers it pretty well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaping-associated_pulmonary_injury

 

Thanks a lot for your response. I am still on the fence. If you do not mind me asking, did you have any other notable side effects? Did it help you? I know everyone is different etc. Just curious.

I would in no way, ever vape nicotine. I live in Canada and there have also been 15 critical hospitalizations up here and I believe a few deaths. The US, as mentioned by others above has been much worse, to the point where some states have outright banned vaping and e-cigarettes.

Anyways, to the OP re: vaping, thanks for the suggestion but I would definitely never vape anything, especially nicotine. With all the illnesses, just please keep yourself safe and informed. Cheers.

 

I wish I could be more helpful but my case is a little confusing because I've been on I think 21 psychiatric medications over the past 15 years and most of them have not helped me at all (this isn't typical, I've been diagnosed "treatment resistant"). I was on Lamictal for almost 10 years I think mainly because it was one of the only ones that didn't have negative side effects for me. So it either helped a little, or didn't do anything for me, not sure! The only reason I went off it a few months ago was because at that point I was trying to take as few meds as possible because I'm already on several more for other health problems. Since I've been off it my mood may have been a little worse but that could also be a coincidence.

I'd definitely consider trying it again, though because I can't recall any side effects. I tend to get a little nauseous and tired the first week or so starting any med but that always goes away. There are plenty of antidepressants where I had multiple bad reactions but Lamictal wasn't one of them. But like you said, everyone's different which is very annoying because it makes the decision harder! Unfortunately pretty much any med you'll find some people saying it saved their lives and other people saying it made them worse. I wish science knew more about the brain!

 

Thanks for sharing and I sincerely hope you find something that works! I know it can be a difficult road to navigate. Best wishes.

 

Vin, have you taken the Lamictal? I have been suggested this too by a good neurologist. He admits it's trial and error but he says it helped his patients lower their tinnitus. Also @JasonP could you let me know your experience more in detail?

 

You could maybe at least try it.

It could end up being what you need and have absolutely no negative effect on your ears.

I can tell pretty much the next day if something is not good and stop before any significant damage is done- but you will probably need a bit longer to tell.


I realize this method may sound risky for people who have yet to really even accept that they have tinnitus- but I don't really see any other way.

I have had to take emergency medications that were so powerful I thought they would surely be a very serious problem yet had absolutely no negative effect.

And yes - I have definitely found that once my ears were compromised it opened up the door for being much more vulnerable to medications and noise exposure that wouldn’t normally be a problem.

Once the ringing starts -
regardless of how or why -
you're kind of screwed.

 

Yes, once it starts, putting back the pieces is crazy. I'm at a level of desperation that is hard to convey. My days are agony, with a little relief in the evenings, but only a little. Sleep is 3-4 hours, typically, by exhaustion. I'm taking Clonazepam but in this state it will be very hard to kick it unless I find something that covers my tinnitus. The super-intrusive static hiss is killing me, I have nausea, stomach pain, feel like throwing up, I cannot function.

Lamictal helped a few and damaged others. It's a drug that is not as well-understood as benzos. It should help, in principle, by stabilizing mood and decreasing Glutamate, which helps when withdrawing from benzos as GABA goes down, but this is the theory, in practice God knows what could happen. And this drug, to be effective, requires a few days of testing, hoping one does not obtain permanent damage. It was hell tapering from Pregabalin for me, I wouldn't want to get into another such story. However in this state I can't go on, got to try something. Pharmacologically the things that occasionally worked for people (from poor studies) were Sulpiride and melatonin, Pramipexole, Acamprosate (?), Carbamazepine, Oxcarbamazepine, Nemerexane, and some other Glutamate antagonists, but it's all trial and error and you can make things worse easily.

The only study that has been made for Lamictal on tinnitus is not good, it helped very few people, so I'm not sure about this suggestion, but I'm at the nothing left to lose stage.

 

Did you start on Lamictal? I was also prescribed Lamictal today for bipolar.

I am not sure if I should start on it.

 

@Chinmoku, do you have other tones? Klonopin gave me 4 extra tones and increased the volume when I tapered. I was on it for only 6 weeks. Be very careful with that. It will be the death of me.

 

I've posted my experience with Lamictal and just now found the proper thread to reply to.

I found this forum when I Googled tinnitus & Lamotrigine. I saw a lot of discussion about Lamotrigine and want to add my experience.

I was taking 600 mg all at once for "stubborn" depression for several years. I went off of it and my ringing became very noticeable again (I've had the ringing since I was 13 due to an aspirin overdose.)

I now take 200 mg every 5 hours and keep a note pad to stay on schedule. If I forget my 5 hour window, I don't realize it until it I hear the ringing again. At that point, it is as if I need to get back on the 5 hours a few times around before I get it under control. Sleeping 8 hours (past the 5 hours) messes me up & usually puts me back to ringing when I wake up. I thought I was the only one to have success - not 100% - but it definitely helps. I will never know how well it works percentage wise because I can not keep on this 5 hour schedule.

Xanax seems to help but I can only take so much before I become a dumping ground of drugs. I take many other meds for other problems that I am afraid of becoming a walking pharmacy, as one person said to me.

I also want to add that my doctor asked why it is so much more noticeable. I haven't worked in 8 years, and I believe that all the noises in an office or just a busy life masked the ringing like white noise. I am alone a lot, by choice, so that is another reason that it is so noticeable.

My doctor told me that most medications need to be in your body for two weeks before they kick in. He said that you should never quit a drug cold turkey but taper off.

One more: is there a thread for "the hum?"

 

I'd like to revive this thread. I'm sure there are a lot of people on Lamotrigine, as I am. If it lessens glutamate, isn't it a done deal that Lamotrigine could only make tinnitus better? What are these incidences of people having a negative effect from Lamotrigine?

I'm on 200 mg and it's the only variable accounted for in what meds I take. I took 50 mg for 4 months, then went up to 150 mg, then at 1.5 months I developed severe tinnitus from taking another drug. But now my ears are way fragile and I was thinking of dropping down on the Lamotrigine to see if it's exacerbating my tinnitus.

Has anyone who's taken Lamotrigine had their tinnitus increase?

 

I was offered Lamotrigine under the explanation it was for my anxiety. There was no mention or talk of any effect on tinnitus.

Has anybody experienced any anxiety or tinnitus relief from Lamotrigine?

Of what I've been offered, this one sounds the most temperamental and difficult to figure out the benefit of.

I'm looking for an anti-anxiety med that doesn't act on serotonin receptors.