Friday, July 15, 2011

Muscle stiffness, teeth grinding and lamictal/lamotrigine

A lot of people have reported muscle stiffness when taking Lamictal/lamotrigine.  Jared Poole of the inestimable CrazyMeds describes them this way:

... everything from just a twinge in your neck or back to full-body aches that make you wonder if you were possessed by some spirit that made you participate in a triathalon the day before and have no memory of it.


This had me concerned.  As I've mentioned before, I'm a weight lifter, and DOMS (delayed-onset muscle stiffness) was already a problem for me.

Wonder of wonders; lamotrigine (so far) seems to be improving my general muscle stiffness!  Yay!  DOMS is nowhere near as bad as it used to be.  Using the foam roller after working out doesn't have be swearing like a sailor because of the pain.  

But the real miracle is that my bruxism seems to be significantly diminished, maybe even gone entirely.  I've ground my teeth for as long as I can remember.  Getting my wisdom teeth removed helped somewhat, but my dentist still prescribed a mouth guard to wear at night.  Being on SSRI's and stimulants didn't help this at all, of course, but I've ground my teeth even when I've been taking no drugs for my brain.  

I can't tell you how nice it is to wake up without my jaw clenched.

2 comments:

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