Home > Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders > Lamotrigine

Definition

Lamotrigine is an anticonvulsant medication used in the treatment of epilepsy. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder in which excessive surges of electrical energy are emitted in the brain, causing seizures. Lamotrigine is usually reserved for difficult-to-control seizures that have not responded to other anticonvulsant medications. In psychiatry, lamotrigine is also indicated in the treatment of bipolar disorder (manic-depression).

Purpose

While lamotrigine controls seizures associated with epilepsy, there is no known cure for the disorder. Although the precise mechanism by which lamotrigine exerts its therapeutic effect is unknown, lamotrigine is thought to act at sodium channels in the neuron (nerve cell) to reduce the amount of excitatory