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Keppra and depression

Wed, 06/10/2009 - 15:08

This topic may already be addressed on this site. If it is, I apologize.  I'm new to epilepsy.com, and have a quick question regarding keppra and antidepressants.

I'm a 23 year old female and have been medicated for epilepsy for about 5 years.  I've been taking keppra for about 2 1/2 years and it has worked wonders for me.  I suffered from nocturnal grand mal seizures and have only had 2 since I began taking keppra.  Since taking keppra I have felt emotionally stunted. Life is bland, and I have no motivation to do or accomplish much of anything.  The longer I'm on the drug, the more I realize that I'm truly missing out on being my "old" self.  I don't want to stop taking keppra because it really has controlled my seizures.  I talked to my neuro about the depression and she offered to refer me to someone for depression/medication/etc. I'm wondering if anyone who takes keppra is also on an antidepressant?  Which one? Has it helped? Etc.  Thanks so much. 

-jenny

Comments

Thank you so much for sharing

Submitted by 111111 on Tue, 2018-02-27 - 10:38
Thank you so much for sharing that, i was afraid to combine B12 with KEPPRA  but  since works fine i will start today.

I had severe psycogenic side

Submitted by jkaplan on Thu, 2018-05-10 - 03:55
I had severe psycogenic side-effects on levetiracetam, with irritability,severe loss of temper.I switched to lamotrigine- which I have been taking for 2 years now- very few side-effects.  I have spoken with several neurological collegues and asked which anti-seizure medication they would chose if they had epilepsy: The majority would chose lamotrigine if effective.The side-effects of levetiracetam are not trivial and it is problematic that many patients are not informed. I treat patients with cerebral abscess and if you ask  patients  and their family on levetiracetam i detali on possible side-effects a larger number than exspected does in fact experience such sideeffects.In short: Try lamotrigine. It also has some anti-depressive effect.

Did you ever get better? I

Submitted by michellem167 on Mon, 2018-08-06 - 15:54
Did you ever get better? I got off Keppra a few weeks ago and life is still bland. I stilll have no emotions.

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