A 42-year-old woman experienced a severe and rare reaction to lamotrigine, a commonly prescribed mood stabilizer, resulting in burn-like marks, blisters, and scarring across her face for over two months. Lamotrigine is widely used to treat conditions such as bipolar disorder and epilepsy, with millions of prescriptions issued annually in the UK and approximately two million users in the United States.

Her medical team diagnosed her with Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN), a life-threatening skin condition. TEN rapidly spread across her face, head, neck, and torso. This severe reaction, while extremely rare, can be fatal and is often linked to certain medications, including anti-epileptic drugs, antibiotics, and anti-inflammatories.

The woman had been prescribed lamotrigine for depression and first developed symptoms approximately three weeks after starting the medication. These symptoms progressively worsened, leading to her urgent admission to intensive care at Hospital Beneficencia Portuguesa in São Paulo, Brazil. Upon admission, her face was almost entirely covered in painful lesions.

Images from her hospital stay vividly illustrate the rapid deterioration. On day one, her face was covered in raw lesions. By day two, her skin had turned dark purple and began to peel. By day four, the skin had blackened, with the most severe burn-like damage concentrated around her mouth. Her condition initially appeared to worsen further during the first few days of treatment, as layers of her skin continued to break down.

Doctors treated her aggressively with multiple antibiotics and applied an antibacterial biomaterial to support tissue regeneration. After four days, she began to show initial signs of improvement, and her care continued with regular monitoring.

Following one month of treatment, her face showed significant improvement, though it remained heavily scarred. She remained hospitalized for a total of 66 days, with her skin gradually healing over time. At a follow-up appointment six months post-discharge, doctors described the recovery of the affected areas as 'excellent,' though rare, such reactions to lamotrigine have been reported previously.

This case is not isolated; earlier reports include Emily McAllister, a mother from Chicago, who suffered a similar, severe condition called Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS), also linked to lamotrigine. Ms. McAllister tragically lost approximately 90 percent of her skin, including facial skin, and was left permanently blind despite undergoing multiple reconstructive surgeries.

Ms. McAllister first noticed symptoms around 16 days after starting the medication, which included red, dry eyes and swelling of her lips and face. These symptoms quickly escalated into a painful, spreading rash and blisters. She recounted feeling incoherent, having difficulty breathing, and being disoriented, emphasizing the sudden and severe onset of the reaction.

As her condition deteriorated, she was admitted to a hospital and spent seven weeks in a burns unit. Over the subsequent three years, she endured the loss of 87 percent of her skin and underwent a series of major procedures, including eyelid reconstruction, a stem cell transplant, a salivary gland transplant, and multiple surgeries to address internal scarring.

Ms. McAllister passionately advocates for greater awareness about SJS, highlighting the profound trust individuals place in their doctors and the devastating, unexpected consequences that can arise from prescribed medications. She stressed, "Before this, I never would've worried about any medication prescribed by a doctor."