Lamotrigine

Lamotrigine (marketed as Lamictal (ləˈmɪktəl) by GlaxoSmithKline) is an anticonvulsant drug used in the treatment of epilepsy and bipolar disorder. For epilepsy it is used to treat partial seizures, primary and secondary tonic-clonic seizures, and seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. Lamotrigine also acts as a mood stabilizer. It is approved for the maintenance treatment of bipolar type I. Chemically unrelated to other anticonvulsants (due to Lamotrigine being a Phenyltriazine), lamotrigine has relatively few side-effects and does not require blood monitoring in monotherapy. The exact way lamotrigine works is unknown. Some think that it is a sodium channel blocker, though it is interesting to note that lamotrigine shares very few side-effects with other, unrelated anticonvulsants known to inhibit sodium channels, (e.g. Oxcarbazepine), which may suggest that lamotrigine has a different mechanism of action . The drug information provided at the time of prescription notes that "it is thought to work by restoring the balance of certain natural substances (neurotransmitters) in the brain." Lamotrigine is inactivated by hepatic glucuronidation.