Psychiatria pre prax 3/2007

DOSAGE OF LAMOTRIGINE

Lamotrigine, a new antiepileptic drug, is also a well-established drug in psychiatry. Its main indication is the bipolar disorder, but lamotrigine has been tried in other indications as well, for example as an augmentation in both pharmacoresistant depressive and schizophrenic disorders. Lamotrigine is a promising drug due to its mechanism of action and profile of side effects. Nowadays, lamotrigine is supplied under various trade names by many generic pharmaceutical companies. However, so far the optimal effective dose is not entirely clear. Most of the open and controlled studies have shown that the daily dose after the titration should not be lower than 200 mg. The survey of studies confirming this fact is discussed.

Keywords: lamotrigine, effective dose, bipolar disorder, unipolar depression, schizophrenia.