Lamotrigine is an anti-epileptic medication and a very good mood stabilizer, especially for bipolar disorder type 2. Tactile hallucination of bugs crawling on the skin can be a very annoying side effect. This can lead to discontinuation of this medication, despite significant improvement of mood symptoms. It will be very helpful to know its prevalence and if there is any remedy to minimize this side effect so that the patient can continue to use it.
I personally have not seen one. However, I read some case reports regarding Lamotrigine-induced psychosis. This is thought to occur via the indirect effect of Lamotrigine on glutamate release.
I have used lamotrigine a great deal and have not seen this side effect. Is it dose-related?
Thank you for your reply.
I started a patient on lamotrigine, she was initially ok with starting dose of 25 mg po bid , but started experiencing sensation of bugs crawling all over her body after increasing her dose. I am not sure if it is dose related yet, will know on follow up as I advised her to go back to 25 bid dose again.
I found one case report on this side effect of lamotrigine.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25470104/
Thank you.
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