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keppra vs. topamax

Sun, 12/23/2007 - 15:06
i'm a 28 year old woman diagnosed with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy when i was 16 - and have been on depakote since. my doctor has, of course, always told me that i should let him know when i'm thinking about getting pregnant. well, it's now within a couple of years of wanting to get pregnant...so i decided to switch over to lamictal. in the last couple of months, i've been ramping up lamictal and decreasing depakote. lamictal and i did not agree so well. so, my doctor has suggested to look at keppra vs topamax -- any thoughts???

Comments

Re: keppra vs. topamax

Submitted by ifonemust on Sun, 2009-08-02 - 10:46
hi i had the same thing happen to me ,every time id start to eat i felt sick,it was lk being pregnant i just couldnt eat, i lost so much weight i went to the docs,,,," she turned to me and said your doing it to yourslf" i was livid tryed to say i was starving myself i lost my breasts and could not sit down on hard chairs i was nearly 6 and half stone i too change my consultant,they dnt care

Re: keppra vs. topamax

Submitted by olly2 on Fri, 2009-04-03 - 21:23

i have been diagnosed with JME since i was 12. In my experience the best drug is sodium valoporate for control of siezures relating to JME type epilepsy. You can safely take Sodium Valporate up to 1000mg and be pregant without side effects ( of the baby) however, if you need more than that then you will need to consider other options because the valporate can interfere with the baby's development in the womb.

when I was pregnant I resisted taking any medicated for the first trimester because this is the most important time for the foetus, then I gradually built up sodium valporate over the second trimester.  After my daughter was born I took up to 3000mgs daily to control my fits because certain hormones present after pregnancy do tend to increase fits for women with JME. My daughter has no deformities however, she is very intelligent. Infact the doctor actually commented on assessment " well we should have all our babies on sodium valoporate if this is how they turn out" However, I did get very, very fat. More than 2.5 times by intial body weight.

In order to get my weight down, my doctor put me on Lamictal. It gave me very bad headaches; made me very tired, itchy and it did not control my siezures.

I then tried Topomax. I lost weight very quickly however, i suddenly lost my words, ability to focus and looked very stupid to others even though I knew what i was trying to say. After a period of time on Topomax I started crying at almost anything and worried about anything. I really was a mess.

My doctor reduced the topomax and started Keppra. They both control my siezures however, after about 6months I noticed ( and my husband) that I was very moody and aggressive, impatient and I started to loose strands of my hair all the time. I was crying at the slightest thing. Yet I was not taking enough of the topomax at that stage to continue to see the benefits of the weight loss. My weight stood still. 

I am now going to go back to epilim ( sodium valoporate). Id rather be a little bit fat ( im now actually about 1.5 times my body weight) than a total nervous wreck with almost no hair! 

 My recommendations for all women who have JME is to go for Epillim (sodium valoporate) first but if you can keep it at 1000mg per day try Keppra or Lamictal. Get plenty of sleep, dont drive and dont drink or eat too much sugar. If you want to loose weight...try topomax for a short time. then go back to Epillim

i have been diagnosed with JME since i was 12. In my experience the best drug is sodium valoporate for control of siezures relating to JME type epilepsy. You can safely take Sodium Valporate up to 1000mg and be pregant without side effects ( of the baby) however, if you need more than that then you will need to consider other options because the valporate can interfere with the baby's development in the womb.

when I was pregnant I resisted taking any medicated for the first trimester because this is the most important time for the foetus, then I gradually built up sodium valporate over the second trimester.  After my daughter was born I took up to 3000mgs daily to control my fits because certain hormones present after pregnancy do tend to increase fits for women with JME. My daughter has no deformities however, she is very intelligent. Infact the doctor actually commented on assessment " well we should have all our babies on sodium valoporate if this is how they turn out" However, I did get very, very fat. More than 2.5 times by intial body weight.

In order to get my weight down, my doctor put me on Lamictal. It gave me very bad headaches; made me very tired, itchy and it did not control my siezures.

I then tried Topomax. I lost weight very quickly however, i suddenly lost my words, ability to focus and looked very stupid to others even though I knew what i was trying to say. After a period of time on Topomax I started crying at almost anything and worried about anything. I really was a mess.

My doctor reduced the topomax and started Keppra. They both control my siezures however, after about 6months I noticed ( and my husband) that I was very moody and aggressive, impatient and I started to loose strands of my hair all the time. I was crying at the slightest thing. Yet I was not taking enough of the topomax at that stage to continue to see the benefits of the weight loss. My weight stood still. 

I am now going to go back to epilim ( sodium valoporate). Id rather be a little bit fat ( im now actually about 1.5 times my body weight) than a total nervous wreck with almost no hair! 

 My recommendations for all women who have JME is to go for Epillim (sodium valoporate) first but if you can keep it at 1000mg per day try Keppra or Lamictal. Get plenty of sleep, dont drive and dont drink or eat too much sugar. If you want to loose weight...try topomax for a short time. then go back to Epillim

Re: keppra vs. topamax

Submitted by DrKatie on Mon, 2009-05-11 - 13:43
I don't know an awful lot about JME but I've personally had REMARKABLE benefits with the ketogenic diet and would recommend you chatting to your neuro about it for you - it only works for some people, but my fits decreased from 180 per day to 1 in 4 months.  I would DEFINATELY suggest to take high doses of DHA and other omega 3 oils as well as coconut oil.  The DHA will help baby's neurological development while specifically focussing on its brain and eye development and coconut oil seems to help bring on ketosis so the brain uses fats as an energy source as opposed to sugars which seems to have a beneficial effect on decreasing seizures - so much so that many people are able to go off their meds completely.  You can use cocount oil instead of butter, marg and any other vegetable oil - for cooking or any other way you can include it in your diet!  Good luck

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