Neurontin vs Lamictal
Both are anticonvulsants. Here is how Neurontin and Lamictal compare on class, mechanism, dosing, approval and supply.
At a glance
Key differences
- Same class. Both Neurontin and Lamictal are anticonvulsants, so they work through the same broad mechanism. Differences between them tend to be about dosing, route, how selective they are, and side effects rather than what they target.
- How they are taken. Both are given by the oral route.
- Time on the market. Neurontin was first approved by the FDA in 1993, Lamictal in 1994.
- Who markets them. Neurontin is marketed by Viatris; Lamictal by GlaxoSmithKline.
What each one treats
NEURONTIN ® is indicated for: • Management of postherpetic neuralgia in adults • Adjunctive therapy in the treatment of partial onset seizures, with and without secondary generalization, in adults and pediatric patients 3 years and older with epilepsy NEURONTIN is indicated for: • Postherpetic neuralgia in adults ( 1 ) • Adjunctive therapy in the treatment of partial onset seizures, with and without secondary generalization, in adults and pediatric patients 3 years and older with epilepsy ( 1 )
LAMICTAL is indicated for: Epilepsy—adjunctive therapy in patients aged 2 years and older: • partial-onset seizures. • primary generalized tonic-clonic (PGTC) seizures. • generalized seizures of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. ( 1.1 ) Epilepsy—monotherapy in patients aged 16 years and older: Conversion to monotherapy in patients with partial-onset seizures who are receiving treatment with carbamazepine, phenytoin, phenobarbital, primidone, or valproate as the single antiepileptic drug. ( 1.1 ) Bipolar disorder: Maintenance treatment of bipolar I disorder to delay the time to occurrence of mood episodes in patients treated for acute mood episodes with standard therapy. ( 1.2 ) Limitations of Use: Treatment of acute manic or mixed episodes is not recommended. Effectiveness of LAMICTAL in the acute treatment of mood episodes has not been established. 1.1 Epilepsy Adjunctive Therapy LAMICTAL is in…
How each one works
12.1 Mechanism of Action The precise mechanisms by which gabapentin produces its analgesic and antiepileptic actions are unknown. Gabapentin is structurally related to the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) but has no effect on GABA binding, uptake, or degradation. In vitro studies have shown that gabapentin binds with high-affinity to the α2δ subunit of voltage-activated calcium channels; however, the relationship of this binding to the therapeutic effects of gabapentin is unknown.
12.1 Mechanism of Action The precise mechanism(s) by which lamotrigine exerts its anticonvulsant action are unknown. In animal models designed to detect anticonvulsant activity, lamotrigine was effective in preventing seizure spread in the maximum electroshock (MES) and pentylenetetrazol (scMet) tests, and prevented seizures in the visually and electrically evoked after-discharge (EEAD) tests for antiepileptic activity. Lamotrigine also displayed inhibitory properties in the kindling model in rats both during kindling development and in the fully kindled state. The relevance of these models to human epilepsy, however, is not known. One proposed mechanism of action of lamotrigine, the releva…
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How this page is built
The facts on this page are pulled directly from official U.S. FDA datasets — they are not written from memory. Each field below names the dataset it came from, so you can check it yourself.
- FDA Drug Label (openFDA) ↗ Indications, mechanism of action and pharmacologic class
- Drugs@FDA ↗ First FDA approval date and the company holding the application
- FDA Drug Shortage Database ↗ Current US supply / shortage status
Plain-English summaries and drug-class explainers are written and reviewed by Sreepriya Prasannan (MSc Digital Transformation of Life Sciences (Innopharma Education / Griffith College); MSc & BSc Botany). Data is retrieved automatically from the sources above and cross-checked with AI-assisted verification (Anthropic's Claude) — brand and generic names are matched against the exact FDA product record so that a combination product or a different formulation cannot be mistaken for the drug on this page. An editor reviews the result before publication. We describe this in full in our editorial standards and corrections policy. The FDA data on this page was last retrieved on 5 Oct 2026. How every register is built: methodology · fixes we have made: corrections log.