changing meds

Michelle My son is 6 years old and was diagnosed with epilespy right before he turned 5. We started out on Trileptal which he is still on. We are pleased with the effects, but it does make him groggy and "out of sorts" when there is a dosage change. He was recently diagnosed with ADHD as well. The main problem is that one of the side effects of ADHD meds is seizures. Once he started his ADHD meds, we saw an increase in his seizure activity so he was put on a second epilepsy med - Lamictal. I read a lot of info on the med also and was very leary of putting him on it. With some reassurance from his doctor, we tried it and are very happy with it. He had no rash. He sometimes complains of his eyes being "itchy." I'm not sure if it's a side effect or not. Good luck. Michelle

Hello :) I took lamictal for 5 mos and I hated it! Remember while I relate this it is only my personal experience and there are a lot of people that do quite well with it. Let me start by telling you I have JME, consisting of myoclonic seizures and tonic clonic seizures. I rarely have any seizures though even without medication. I started this med because I had 3 tonic clonic seizures in one day and was basically to scared not to try something. In the beginning I had a migraine that last about 8 weeks. Seriously not kidding, it would go away for a few hours a day but for the most part I felt like I was wearing the worlds tightest pony tail or like something was pulling my scalp off backwards (not to get to descriptive :)) Then after that subsided I started having horrible panic attacks! Can I just say that I have never had a panic attack in my life before. It also brought on insomnia, swollen lymph nodes and horrible myoclonic jerks. My neuro shrugged that off and told me that with a lot of people that take lamictal their myoclonic jerks increase. However, mine didnt increase lightly... like a jerk here and there. I would violently jerk in the morning after waking. I dont mean to scare you I just want you to know that I considered this AED ONLY because it was "talked-up" like the worlds safest med and no side effects etc etc but that was not the case with me. I switched to Keppra and my myoclonic jerks have completely gone away. I havent had even the smallst jerk (or any type of seizure) in 4 mos. Again, this is only my experience. I think it is so smart of you to fully research a med before switching. Keep in mind that every AED effects people differently. You might do really good on it, my concerns were always just ignored by my neuro so I thought you should know that sometimes people on lamictal do experience bad side effects. I hope you come to a good decision, whatever you decide :) Good luck with everything!!! God Bless, Jill