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Effects of Keppra on sleep and appetite?
Sun, 05/27/2007 - 02:58Topic: Medication Issues
I was wondering how other people are dealing with Keppra. I've been on Keppra for about three weeks, 500 mg twice a day. I have complex partial epilepsy that was just diagnosed.
1) APPETITE
I've completely lost my appetite. When I do eat, I eat about 1/3 of the amount of food I used to. I try to drink plenty of water each day, but I eat about one meal a day most of the time, and never more than two. I've lost about 10 pounds so far. I couldn't find any reference online to this being a side effect but I can't see where else this is coming from. I don't even crave chocolate..!
2) SLEEP
During the first week, I felt like I was sleeping better, but then the dose was doubled and now I just can't fall asleep at night. I just lay there in bed for hours and hours. I would guess that, on average, it now takes me three hours to fall asleep once I tuck in, and sometimes as many as five. It doesn't matter how tired I feel, and I'm not consuming any caffeine. I've noticed that Keppra is listed as a "new" drug without known sleep side effects. Has anyone else had trouble falling asleep with Keppra?
-Nivalis
Comments
Re: Re: Effects of Keppra on sleep and appetite?
Submitted by huiling07 on Mon, 2007-05-28 - 02:14
I am under Keppra for 1 year and 500mg twice a day.. recently at night I can't fall asleep even I am extremely tired... and will get up earlier and can't get back to sleep...
Re: Re: Re: Effects of Keppra on sleep and appetite?
Submitted by michaela whitney on Mon, 2007-05-28 - 03:30
ive been on it for 7 days and i just want to get off of it.
today was the first day where i actually ate food.
it wasn't much but its more than what i was eating in the past few days.
it hasn't made me tired but its just made me want to do nothing and just sit on the couch.
i really want to not take it. its awful.
we've been trying to lower my doseage, because its symptoms are worse that whatever they perscribed it for ( which they havn't fully explained to me yet) sigh - doctors.
Re: Effects of Keppra on sleep and appetite?
Submitted by cd47 on Sun, 2007-05-27 - 08:19
the first weeks i took Keppra (500mg x 2/day) i didn't care if i ate anything or not & lost weight too. not quite 10 lbs tho -appetite's improved after 2 months! re: sleep - i don't sleep as well as i normally do.. falling asleep is no prob, it's waking too easily & not being able to get back to sleep. 2-3 weeks into my Keppra switch, i had a SP that my epi attributes to sleep deprivation. he offered a sleep aid, which i tried once - didn't like the 'hangover' feeling the next day. so now, if i don't get good rest, i try to nap/read/drowse later in the day. HUGE priority for me to sleep well. we could increase the dose again, but i prefer taking as little as possible to minimize side effects. i haven't had another sx (not even a hint) since focusing more on sleeping. beginning dose was too high for me - i felt wayyy too stimulated & nervous (manic) when i began. dr reduced my dose to 250mg x2/day and things began stabilizing. i now think i can actually say i like Keppra; still tentative, but MUCH better. cd