keppra withdrawal

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Hi I am in the process of withdrawing keppra and nothing to introduce. I am just curious if there is anyone on this site who has already done been through it and what sort of side effects did they have during the process? All advice welcomed and thanks in advance. Teri

Comments

Re: keppra withdrawal

Submitted by logansmom1 on Wed, 2008-03-19 - 13:06

Hello. My son is 3 1/2 years old and the docs are considering taking him off keppra. he takes a total of 120mg daily. That is such a low dose, any advice would be appreciated. i hope your son is in good health

thevernes@yahoo.com

Thanks

Hello. My son is 3 1/2 years old and the docs are considering taking him off keppra. he takes a total of 120mg daily. That is such a low dose, any advice would be appreciated. i hope your son is in good health

thevernes@yahoo.com

Thanks

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: keppra withdrawal

Submitted by Andrews mom on Thu, 2007-04-26 - 03:57

Hi everyone, I am the mother of a 12 year old boy that has been through medication hell since 2005 for his epilepsy. Andrew has multiple absence seizures daily. With his he has two kinds though, one where he just freezes from whatever he was doing and his eyes roll up into his head--you cant see anything but the white part and when the eyes roll back down 30 seconds or so later he picks up wtih whatever he was doing and doesnt even know he had a seizure. With the other one the eyes are rolled clear up too but he keeps walking and has almost walked into walls and doors. Andrew also has clonic tonic seizures with no rhyme or reason (at school, in the van, while eating supper--that one was freaky he was choking on fried chicken, sitting on the floor playing with his younger brother, sleeping etc.). Andrew has been through Tegretol, Tegretol and Topamax, Topamax, Depakote, Keppra, Keppra & Lamictal and now Keppra & Zonegran. The current plan by his Pediatric Neurologist is to up the Zonegran to 8 pills a day (25mg each) and lower his Keppra from 6 pills a day (250mg each) down to none. Then they are going to add a new medication to be the primary (replacing the Keppra), Andrew sat on 3 Keppra pills a day for 6 months clonic tonic free and then all of a sudden the absence seizures started getting more frequent and December through April was full of clonic tonic seizures. His last one he was in the back end of the pick up at my moms house getting something and as he was getting out he had a seizure and fell our onto the rock driveway. We are having problems with the numerous changes in his medication. He fell asleep in a class today and the teacher chewed into him in front of his classmates and told him how rude that was of him. Last month Andrew was in the ER 3 times. Twice with severe reaction to the Lamictal (felt like his skin was on fire, was bawling in class, was very hot to the touch, blood pressure was low), the ER docs of course said couldnt be the medication thats not the listed side effect (rash and breathing problems are) and pushed it off on it being flu season. He never did get sick but a week later to the day he was in the ER again this time severly dehydrated and hooked up to an IV for several hours. He came off the Lamictal the next day and started the Zonegran after his next clonic tonic seizure. The last ER visit they believe he had so many of the absence seizures that he wore himself out. I am concerned about such a radical change in his medication one right after another. Has anyone came off of the Keppra over about 4 weeks time and what am I in for? We have been through a roller coaster of side effects with the past meds. If anyone has any heads up from personal experience I would appreciate it. Lisa

Re: keppra withdrawal

Submitted by kymmykins on Thu, 2008-06-12 - 10:07

My heart really goes out to you in all that you have been through with your son. And he thanks you. Trust me he does. More then words can say, or even describe because i am that child speaking 16 yrs later. And i look at everything my mom has done for me and just thinking about it is enough to make me want to cry. I have JME and have gone through the lamictal horribleness with the fever and the sweats and the midnight runs to the ER. Scared as hell. And i have also been on keppra, several doses of it. Both of those drugs did a number on me. I tried them seperately, i tried them together, and nothing seemed to work. I have now finally just come off lamictal, completely, then i did keppra completely. A 12 week transition i couldn't wait to finish because i didn't even recognize myself on either one of these drugs. Speaking from personal experience, drugs work for different people in different ways. Keppra worked great for me for about 2 months, then stopped. I am now on topamax and slowly increasing my dose. I have been off keppra completely for only 4 days so i am experiencing a few of the withdrawl symptoms. Much the same ones as being on them. The depression, anxiety, the moodiness. The stuff that drives me crazy because i am nromally such a happy go lucky person. All the same stuff i heard would happen with Topamax but i had to try it anyways. You can't always go by what others say, or by others stories because there are so many different factors to consider. I was worries with Topamax after all of the stories, and so far we have been friends. So case in point you never know until you try.

I wish you the best of luck with you son. Stay positive, you are such a supportive mom and he is so lucky to have you. Coming off the Keppra might be a bit rough at times but from experience i am sure you know that coming off is a gradual process, and even when we become a little monster-ish, just know it's a temporary thing, and it's not really us, it's the drug talking. He loves you though and everything has a way of working itself out in the end. You will find your solution. I wish you the best of luck.

your friend Kym

My heart really goes out to you in all that you have been through with your son.  And he thanks you.  Trust me he does.  More then words can say, or even describe because i am that child speaking 16 yrs later.  And i look at everything my mom has done for me and just thinking about it is enough to make me want to cry.  I have JME and have gone through the lamictal horribleness with the fever and the sweats and the midnight runs to the ER.  Scared as hell.  And i have also been on keppra, several doses of it.  Both of those drugs did a number on me.  I tried them seperately, i tried them together, and nothing seemed to work.  I have now finally just come off lamictal, completely, then i did keppra completely.  A 12 week transition i couldn't wait to finish because i didn't even recognize myself on either one of these drugs.  Speaking from personal experience, drugs work for different people in different ways.  Keppra worked great for me for about 2 months, then stopped.  I am now on topamax and slowly increasing my dose.  I have been off keppra completely for only 4 days so i am experiencing a few of the withdrawl symptoms.  Much the same ones as being on them.  The depression, anxiety, the moodiness.  The stuff that drives me crazy because i am nromally such a happy go lucky person.  All the same stuff i heard would happen with Topamax but i had to try it anyways.  You can't always go by what others say, or by others stories because there are so many different factors to consider. I was worries with Topamax after all of the stories, and so far we have been friends.  So case in point you never know until you try.  I wish you the best of luck with you son.  Stay positive, you are such a supportive mom and he is so lucky to have you.  Coming off the Keppra might be a bit rough at times but from experience i am sure you know that coming off is a gradual process, and even when we become a little monster-ish, just know it's a temporary thing, and it's not really us, it's the drug talking.  He loves you though and everything has a way of working itself out in the end.  You will find your solution.  I wish you the best of luck. your friend Kym

My heart really goes out to you in all that you have been through with your son. And he thanks you. Trust me he does. More then words can say, or even describe because i am that child speaking 16 yrs later. And i look at everything my mom has done for me and just thinking about it is enough to make me want to cry. I have JME and have gone through the lamictal horribleness with the fever and the sweats and the midnight runs to the ER. Scared as hell. And i have also been on keppra, several doses of it. Both of those drugs did a number on me. I tried them seperately, i tried them together, and nothing seemed to work. I have now finally just come off lamictal, completely, then i did keppra completely. A 12 week transition i couldn't wait to finish because i didn't even recognize myself on either one of these drugs. Speaking from personal experience, drugs work for different people in different ways. Keppra worked great for me for about 2 months, then stopped. I am now on topamax and slowly increasing my dose. I have been off keppra completely for only 4 days so i am experiencing a few of the withdrawl symptoms. Much the same ones as being on them. The depression, anxiety, the moodiness. The stuff that drives me crazy because i am nromally such a happy go lucky person. All the same stuff i heard would happen with Topamax but i had to try it anyways. You can't always go by what others say, or by others stories because there are so many different factors to consider. I was worries with Topamax after all of the stories, and so far we have been friends. So case in point you never know until you try.

I wish you the best of luck with you son. Stay positive, you are such a supportive mom and he is so lucky to have you. Coming off the Keppra might be a bit rough at times but from experience i am sure you know that coming off is a gradual process, and even when we become a little monster-ish, just know it's a temporary thing, and it's not really us, it's the drug talking. He loves you though and everything has a way of working itself out in the end. You will find your solution. I wish you the best of luck.

your friend Kym

keppra withdrawal

Comments

Re: keppra withdrawal

Submitted by logansmom1 on Wed, 2008-03-19 - 13:06

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: keppra withdrawal

Submitted by Andrews mom on Thu, 2007-04-26 - 03:57

Re: keppra withdrawal

Submitted by kymmykins on Thu, 2008-06-12 - 10:07

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