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VNS vs vimpat

Wed, 07/27/2011 - 22:36
We just saw my son's neurologist, who finally after nearly 2 yrs of multiple seizures and upping doses of the 3 meds he is on is offering alternatives...does any one have any experience with VNS in a child or the drug vimpat?....my son has partial complex seizures...he has had a total of 88 since Dec 09

Comments

Re: VNS vs vimpat

Submitted by T Davis on Thu, 2011-07-28 - 00:21
I am so sorry to hear about your little one.  I'm not young, but have complex partials, and was having in the range of 30 to 45 a month at it's peak. I currently take 3000 mg of Keppra daily and Vimpat 200 mg twice daily. The vimpat has helped me decrease my siezures greatly. I am still have a couple a week, but I'm making improvement.  The only side effect I have had is drowziness, maybe a little of balance. The drowziness goes away slowly as I adjusted to it.  I hope they're able to find something that works for him. Don't give up!

Re: VNS vs vimpat

Submitted by jbmom on Thu, 2011-07-28 - 22:22
Thanks for your story...it seems vimpat has some hope. we are not really crazy about putting him through a surgical procedure with relatively low benefit before exhuasting all other options...my son was on keppra from 22 months when he first started having seizures until aug of 09, he had great success with it, but it fogged him up so much he was unaware of his surroundings...he was having 4-5 seizures a yr, then he was switched to lamictal, which did not seem to work, then they added trileptal and that sort of helped....at least according to the eeg, as of last nov they added klonipin and we have been "tweeking" doses of all 3 since and yet he contiues to have on average 5 a month..each lasted 3-5 mins and as of lately they have gone from 1 a week to 2-3 in a day happening every couple of weeks..he has had 88 since dec of 2009. We will never give up, we have always been huge advacates for him, after all he is just a kid and who else can fight for him.  Good luch to you as well

Re: VNS vs vimpat

Submitted by tbaldwin on Thu, 2011-07-28 - 11:45

After 31 years of epilepsy and being on allot of medicines always had a complex-partials w/o any arua every 3-4 wks. Then in '07 I got in a test of lacosamide which is Vimpat. My frequency improved to 1 every 7-12 wks. the other medicine that I took during test was lowered as Vimpat was increased.

After the test a very very well known doctor replaced the other med. with Keppra XR. Now I'm taking 300mgs Vimpat two times a day + 1000mgs Keppra XR two times a day. My last complex-partial was 6/13/10. Then 6 2/3 months later (1/4/11) I had my first simple partial which I thought it was an aura of an oncoming complex-partial, but it stayed simple for all of the seizure. Then 4 1/3 monthes later (5/15/11) another simple occurred, none since that. I'd never had a vegus nerve stimulator, had an unsuccessful left temporal lobectomy in '96. This mixture may get me to return to driving.               Timothy Baldwin

After 31 years of epilepsy and being on allot of medicines always had a complex-partials w/o any arua every 3-4 wks. Then in '07 I got in a test of lacosamide which is Vimpat. My frequency improved to 1 every 7-12 wks. the other medicine that I took during test was lowered as Vimpat was increased.

After the test a very very well known doctor replaced the other med. with Keppra XR. Now I'm taking 300mgs Vimpat two times a day + 1000mgs Keppra XR two times a day. My last complex-partial was 6/13/10. Then 6 2/3 months later (1/4/11) I had my first simple partial which I thought it was an aura of an oncoming complex-partial, but it stayed simple for all of the seizure. Then 4 1/3 monthes later (5/15/11) another simple occurred, none since that. I'd never had a vegus nerve stimulator, had an unsuccessful left temporal lobectomy in '96. This mixture may get me to return to driving.               Timothy Baldwin

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