Lamictal, also known by the generic name lamotrigine, is an anticonvulsant medication. Persons with epilepsy use Lamictal to help keep seizures under control, sometimes in combination with other medications.

It’s also used by persons with bipolar disorder to delay mood episodes.

Lamictal Rash

The drug’s warning label alerts users to the possibility of a severe skin rash as an allergic reaction to Lamictal.

Typically, cases of Lamictal rash manifest within two to eight weeks after the patient begins to take the drug, but in a few cases the rash began following prolonged treatment of several months.

Lamictal rash is much more likely to develop in younger patients than in adults. Other than age, no other factors predict the likelihood of Lamictal rash.

This allergic reaction to Lamictal can be severe enough to require hospitalization and discontinuation of the drug.

The warning label says that even though some cases turn out to be relatively benign, it’s not possible to tell at first which cases could be serious or life-threatening.

In some cases, this Lamictal rash turned out to be an early sign of Stevens Johnson syndrome or toxic epidermal necrolysis, two related skin conditions that can leave permanent damage and threaten the patient’s life.

Symptoms of Lamictal Stevens Johnson Syndrome

In Lamictal Stevens Johnson syndrome, the condition may progress well beyond a mere rash.

Some of the trademark symptoms of SJS are blisters that form within the rash-affected areas of skin.

Over the course of a few days, these blisters tend to grow and join each other, forming areas of skin that come loose and peel away from the body.

In toxic epidermal necrolysis, these areas of peeled-away skin cover even more of the body. In fact, how much skin has peeled away is what makes the difference between TEN and SJS: in the former, at least 30 percent of the body surface area has peeled away; in the latter, it’s less than 10 percent.

Doctors now consider the two conditions to be greater and lesser variants of each other.

Losing a significant amount of skin can be life-threatening. The loss of skin exposes the patient to the risk of infection – not just skin infections like cellulitis, but also systemic infections like sepsis that can lead to shock and organ failure.

Infections like these are the leading cause of death in people with TEN.

SJS and TEN can affect more than just the outer surface of the skin. They can also cause similar lesions in the mucous membranes that line the inside of the digestive and respiratory systems, as well as the parts of the eyes behind the eyelid.

Lamictal Stevens Johnson syndrome is known to lead to conjunctivitis, an inflammation of the eye tissue, as well as corneal scarring that in some cases can leave the patient blind.

While there are many possible causes of SJS and TEN, more often than not the cause can be traced to a medication such as Lamictal.

Despite the label’s warning about the dangers of Lamictal rash, it’s still possible for a case of SJS or TEN to take Lamictal patients by surprise.