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Keppra Side Effects???

Thu, 06/23/2016 - 23:39
Hi everyone. I have a 7 year old boy. He started having pre-seizures within 12 hours and then grand mals within 24 hours of his 6 months of age vaccinations. 2 years old uncontrolled seiures anytime he had a seizure, and then he started having sporadic ones that were the worst he had ever had. He had a grand mal that lasted over 20 minutes and took 2 doses of diastat to get it to stop. We were in the ambulance and at the hospital before it stopped. He didnt wake up from post dictal for several hours after that one. They finallty found something on that trips eeg, and now he gets keppra. He has been on it for 5 years now and has been seizure free the whole time. Yayyy! However, the side effects are bad. In the last year, he is having a terrible time with sporadic short term memory loss and especially word recall. He is studdering severely, tripping over the same word 50 times in a row kind of studdering. Then he gets frustrated, starts to cry and says he cant remember the next word he wants to say. Its getting so severe he can barely speak to me. This all started two days ago. I finished a bottle of his keppra (levitiracetam, its the generic keppra) and opened a new bottle. It was filled on the same date in January. I get several months filled at a time for him, so this bottle was from the same refill as the last one. HOWEVER, about 6 hours after his first dose from that new bottle, he started this stammering and memory loss thing. I find it super suspicious, I cant help but think this sudden worsening is something to do with the bottle. I know that Walgreens sometimes gives us different brand names, so I wonder if its something to do with that? I feel so badly for my baby. He is truly suffering. He is so clingy now so I know he is super upset.

Comments

I can't speak on whether or

Submitted by byronfab on Fri, 2016-06-24 - 01:02
I can't speak on whether or not it has to do with the refill dates of the bottle or the Generic vs. non. I have however taken Keppra for months previously, along with countless other anti-seizure medications. I've taken generic and non-generic of all my medications and had large fill orders as well. I've experienced no problems when pharmacies give me different brand names or fill them in large quantities, I just experienced problems with Keppra.Of all the seizure medication I've taken Keppra had the worst side effects for me and I only took it for 2 months. I had horrible mood swings, trouble with memory, and dizziness. Currently I take Lamotrigine, Zonisamide, and Depakote. Great, strong, reliable combination, with little to no side effects when taken with care. Depakote and Lamotrigine are one of the most powerful combinations of anti-seizure and they have been effective for me with little side effects and I'm sure they would be effective for your son too. I was quick to switch off of the Keppra and move to a different combination, maybe a different set of medication would be wise for your son. Honing in one the correct therapeutic levels of medication can take time and patience but well worth the doctor visits and adjusting. There are plenty of anti-seizure medications out there, that also come with their long list of side effects, maybe it's time to discuss with your doctor a change in medication. Sounds like the severe memory loss, word recall, emotional swings could be a direct correlation with the Keppra.Hope your son is feeling better and you can get this resolved. Takes a while.        

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