Hair loss

[marjoe198]

Hi,
My first seizure was in 1973. I have only had a few seizures in my life and my last one is well over 10 years ago.  I have been on Dilantin and Tegretol since 1973 but always suffered from severe vertigo.  I could not walk a straight line and often felt drunk and really out of it. It turned out it was the dilantin causing this. My neurologist suggested I go on lamictal since there are very little side effects.  I was so happy and she slowly weaned me off dilantin and tegretol.  Eventually I was up to 600mg of lamictal, which I thought was alot.  About one month after the med was increased I noticed my hair got very thin.  I had very thick hair all my life.  My daughter even remarked how thin it was.  I started looking through my hair and noticed I had severe hair loss all over my scalp.  The top of it is so thin you could actually see bald spots and if I pull my hair up in a pony tail you could see bald spots on the sides and front of my hair.  The parts in my hair are growing wider every day.  I am so self concious I look in the mirror every few minutes and am getting sick over this. I went to my medical doctor and he ran all blood tests which came back normal. The only thing I did different was take lamictal so I am wondering if this could be causing this. I heard there is only a one percent chance of hairloss on this medicine but I have read message boards and alot of people are experiencing the same thing.   I called the neuro and she lowered the dosage to 400mg a day. I am seeing her next week and will slowly be weaned off this.Should I see a dermatologist about this.  I have no idea which medicine I will take now. I can probably go off all meds since I have been seizure free for many years but I am not comfortable doing that.  If lamictal is causing the hair loss is there a chance it will grow back or will my hair continue to fall out until I am bald.  I would really appreciate any input you can give me on this subject.  Thanks