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Topamax

Sun, 09/10/2006 - 06:02

Topic: Women With Epilepsy

I've been taking different meds for seizures since I had E, but someone has put to my attention Topamax. Says that it's better and it helps you to lose weight. Is that true? How good is this drug? What are the side effects? If anyone here has taken Topamax please let me know what you think of the drug. Thanks :-)

Comments

Re: Topamax

Submitted by heathersmithers on Wed, 2006-09-20 - 08:23

Hi ive been taking carbamazipine 1200mg a day and am now taking topamax 300mg a day ,,,my ep neuro just increased that from 200 mg a couple of months ago, i also have a script for ativian for cluster seziures..... The increase in topamax seems to be doing the trick the last couple of months for me...(fingers crossed) i now count the days inbetween seziures instead of the hours as i was doing... As for the weight loss on topamax (sigh) god had to love that ride,,,(grin) now just to keep it off,,,unfortunatly after awhile your body does adjust and do seem level out....but by then hopefully you will be used to eating smaller meals and have taught yourself to eat healthier......(except the damn chocolate) And after sufferering from migranes for years and taking imatrex for them (bloodly expensive) they seemed to have gone ,,,,i have only had to take two imatrex pills in the last year and a half... But like you have been told on here it works different for everyone... and i took godiva's girls advice long ago and became addicted to gatorade and bottled water so i never have had any problem with kidney stones Good Luck Heather

Re: Re: Topamax

Submitted by GongaAnn on Wed, 2006-09-20 - 11:45

Hi Heather, I have been struggling with what my husband and i just figured are seizures, for the last year and a half. I am in my mid-20's and never had any seizure activity before this. But of course you look back and see what could of happened to cause this or if I had any seizures before now. The only thing is maybe absence seizures, as I used to have 'out of body' experiences, usually doing a repetitive motor function, like brushing my hair...Anyways, I am writing to you b/c I noticed you were on a high(?) dose of tegretol or the carbamazipine. I am currently taking 200mgs 3x a day, along with neurotin 600mgs 3x a day, clonezapam 4mgs/day, as well as the ativan, when needed. My husband and I have noticed that the ativan helps as soon as i get my aura...just calm me down and i don't know if it even helps seizures, no doctor seems to tell me, they just give me more meds. So, i was wondering why you were taken off the carbamazipine? And can you explain your cluster seizures? How does the ativan help you? What is the benefit of switching to topomax? I have heard alot of people on here talking about it but, maybe it is not available in Canada? Well, thanx for listening! hope to hear back from you! Thanx-Crystal

Re: Re: Re: Topamax

Submitted by heathersmithers on Wed, 2006-09-20 - 13:23

Hi Ann,,,first just to clarify i havent been taken off the carbamazipine ,,,still on it as well as the topamax,,, as for what the dr. calls the "cluster seziures" i used to describe them to him as aura's,,,,they were not really unpleasant really just bothersome,,,i had larger seziures but the "aura's" were getting out of hand,,,,they used to come one at a time,,,but in the last 6 months or so i would have times where it would come on like waves almost and they would happen one right after another and withen a space of about 4-5 minutes i would have perhaps 6-8 in a row...after that happened i would just crash for a few hours,,,when we went to see the ep neuro he automatically upped the topamax as i was at that point unwilling to switch meds and added the ativain as he warned me that i was to take it if i had more than two or three of these in a row or was risking having a grand mal,,as i have never had one of these that i am aware of i am still hesitaint to take them and have managed only to take the ativain 3 times now...i hold off until the 4th seziure in a row and then i take it (grin) The ativain just seems to totally relax me, the ep neuro said that was the idea and to let it put me to sleep if i was able, and to sleep for 4-6 hours...he explained it in more detail as it was at that visit he started treating me like a patient (grin) i even got a follow up phone call an hour later when he finally read my MRI's one from 4 years ago and one from 6 months earlier,,,,diagnos of MS is in,,,and he even gave me his pager number who would have guessed (sigh) ..... And by the way i am in Canada and yep it is avaliable here it is also available in a generatic brand which is soooo much cheaper now, it is called topiramate about one third the cost of the brand name. Hope that helps Heather

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