Lamotrigine Abolished Aggression in a Patient With Treatment-Resistant Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

Lamotrigine is an antiepileptic drug with broad spectrum of actions, also approved for the treatment of bipolar disorder. Growing number of reports document the antiaggressive effect of lamotrigine in various psychiatric diseases. However, there has been only 1 study in the literature investigating the role of lamotrigine in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but its antiaggressive aspect was not observed. Although aggression is commonly associated with PTSD, there is paucity of data considering its management. We report a case of a patient with treatment-resistant PTSD, whose aggressive outbursts dominated his clinical picture and which were greatly improved after introducing lamotrigine in therapy. Our case suggests that lamotrigine may be useful in treating aggression and aggression-related symptoms in PTSD.