Lamotragine and Alcohol

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Hello, everyone! So, I'll start from the beginning. I had my first seizure when I was 11 in 7th grade, last day of school. I had 2 grand maul seizures that morning, went to the hospital, and was referred to a neurologist. I ultimately went to see a pediatric neurologist at Vanderbuilt Childrens Hospital in Nashville Tennessee. They put me on Keppra, which I had to be taken off of due to it making me bipolar. Then I was put on Topamax, which made me lose way too much weight.(I was already extremely skinny.) As well as making me depressed. Lastly they put me on Lamictal.(Lamotragine due to insurance.) I remember taking 4 of the small pills in the morning, and 4 more at night. They took me off of the seizure medicine when I was 16 years old because I had been seizure free after those first 2 and they wanted me to be able to be off of the medicine before I could get my license. I was off of medicine until I was 17, when I had to be put on effexor for panic attacks and anxiety, and I'm currently still on it. I'm 23 years old now. A couple of weeks ago, I started having a panic attack. (the only way I know to describe them is it's like I'm in a little bubble inside of my head and I'm watching everything happen through someone elses eyes. Kinda like an out of body experience as well and I get tingly all over.) Now, I rarely get these anymore. But the next thing I know, I'm moving backwards on a stretcher and being loaded into an ambulance. I couldn't speak and I was still vaugley unaware of what was happening. The lady was asking me questions and I was able to nod, but I still couldn't speak until she asked me when my birthday was and things slowly were able to come to. They did an catscan at the hospital, which came back normal. I should add, when I was younger they did the EEG(sleep deprived) and MRIs and all were always normal. And they ended up sending me home that night and just telling me to follow up with my regular doctor. Which I did. And it turned out I had a UTI(I just finished my week of antibiotics last night.) I'm not sure if that can effect seizures or not, but I know when my grandmother has them she becomes delerious and talks out of her head, crazy. She's sending me to a neurologist and went ahead and put me back on my seizure medication. I'm not on the full dose yet again, i've only jsut started my second week, but my full dose will be 3 of the little pills morning and night, and then I have my effexor, and my Heather brand birth control(which I'm about to be off of because I'm weaning my son from breastfeeding.) To the point of the post, I know the bottle says not to drink alcohol while on the medicine. I remember my momma always warning me against it when I was younger.(I'm sure most was part of a scare tactic.) And I've never really drank. I've never been drunk. Or even slightly intoxicated. I don't even like beer. But I like strawberry dacquaries and white wine.(haven't tried red yet.) I never drink over a glass of either(if I even finish that.) But my question is, what are your experiences with drinking alcohol while on this medicine? Have your doctors given you any specific advice on what you can and cannot have? I'd like to be able to have a drink every now and then, but I don't want it to effect me badly. Thank you all in advance!

Comments

Started my seizures shortly

Submitted by Cannoli on Thu, 2017-06-29 - 04:16

Started my seizures shortly after turning 19. Gone through some different meds. But all the same. None really mix well with alcohol. I usually never remember my seizure days for up to weeks at a time. Cloudy a lot sometimes. Haven't had a seizure in at least 4-5 months but one came and got me the morning after a thorough night of drinking about a week ago only this time I wasn't delirious in the beginning so I remembered the onset. And now I panic every time I get the slight feeling. But the point is my neurologist told me a glass of wine or a bottle of beer won't kill to have at the end of a hard day. Just be considerate of the circumstances.

other considerations you

Submitted by Amy Jo on Thu, 2017-06-29 - 22:10

other considerations you should check out... lamotrigine and oral contraceptives have interaction issues. not familiar with the bc you mention but look into that and issues with avoiding/planning pregnancy and breat feeding. you should ask if other medications you are on are contraindicated with epilepsy or interact with your seizure medications. some seizures can look like panic attacks, good potential for that not being just panic attacks.

It depends on the Rx and your

Submitted by Roald on Fri, 2017-06-30 - 10:00

It depends on the Rx and your response to it. If you are wanting to have a drink or something here is what I recommend. Have a friend with you who knows about your medical issues. Then try one drink. I would recommend kind of during the day towards the 2nd 1/2 so that it isn't too close to your morning Rx dose and that has fully digested and absorbed but not too late in the day that you still have alcohol in your stomach when you take your evening dose. Start with one drink and then drink a bunch of water after and ideally eat a meal before your evening dose. Then see how it goes and see how you feel the next day. The extra water and food will help with dehydration and hang-overs. Then if you want you can try 2 drinks the next time etc and take it slowly and see what is a tolerable amount for you to have without having any negative effects on your epilepsy. I don't want to encourage you to drink but that is a way that you can figure out what is safe for you hopefully. If there are complications most of the "rescue Rx's" also don't mix well with alcohol so that can be tricky and they may not work the same if needed. I quit drinking to save $ when having a kid long before I started having seizures so when I started having seizures I didn't have an issue wanting to drink (vimpat changed that). To me when I was taking keppra it made the idea of alcohol nauseating and it was revolting to watch people drink "yeast urine" but vimpat got me to try it again several times but now oxcar has made me not even want to try and see if I can drink with it since the 1st dose was added to vimpat. For me alcohol did not interact with vimpat and I even had a drink before and after my evening dose once without any problems or symptoms. I would say that vimpat "encouraged" me to start drinking again (one of it's side effects is to participate in addictive behavior) so I am glad that only lasted about a month until another Rx got added and oxcar seemed to completely take that desire away immediately. My 2 cents: cannabis is a million times better. It isn't addictive, isn't carcinogenic, and has medicinal properties that can potentially help you rather than harm you or the Rx you are on. Same advise with that. Start slow with a friend and try different kinds until you find one that is effective for your symptoms. Depending on the strain one or 2 hits can be effective enough to start and comparable to one drink. Ideally don't smoke, vaporizing is much better, or take edibles or concentrated oils but start very small with those. (CBD oil is from industrial hemp and is different than cannabis or cannabis oil). Cannabis helps with my back injury pain, sleep, dealing with Rx side effects, depression from this situation of not working, driving, being on pins and needles and having everyone around you on pins and needles because you are. I used cannabis since 13/14 but I have become used to the "recreational" side effects and really only use it as a medicine everyday like my other anti-epileptic or anti-convulsant drugs to always keep a therapeutic level of cannabis in my system without every really feeling "high" or "stoned" from it. I wish there was an alternative and alcohol wasn't the only recreational drug available to us because in general it sucks, makes you act like an idiot, and poisons your body and mind- even if you don't have epilepsy or some other medical problem. It is legal only because it is too easy to let a bucket of juice rot and any idiot could be doing it at home under their sink or in their garage. Ever had your garbage can smell kind of like wine or beer? Yeah same thing!

It depends on the Rx and your response to it. If you are wanting to have a drink or something here is what I recommend. Have a friend with you who knows about your medical issues. Then try one drink. I would recommend kind of during the day towards the 2nd 1/2 so that it isn't too close to your morning Rx dose and that has fully digested and absorbed but not too late in the day that you still have alcohol in your stomach when you take your evening dose. Start with one drink and then drink a bunch of water after and ideally eat a meal before your evening dose. Then see how it goes and see how you feel the next day.  The extra water and food will help with dehydration and hang-overs. Then if you want you can try 2 drinks the next time etc and take it slowly and see what is a tolerable amount for you to have without having any negative effects on your epilepsy. I don't want to encourage you to drink but that is a way that you can figure out what is safe for you hopefully. If there are complications most of the "rescue Rx's" also don't mix well with alcohol so that can be tricky and they may not work the same if needed. I quit drinking to save $ when having a kid long before I started having seizures so when I started having seizures I didn't have an issue wanting to drink (vimpat changed that). To me when I was taking keppra it made the idea of alcohol nauseating and it was revolting to watch people drink "yeast urine" but vimpat got me to try it again several times but now oxcar has made me not even want to try and see if I can drink with it since the 1st dose was added to vimpat. For me alcohol did not interact with vimpat and I even had a drink before and after my evening dose once without any problems or symptoms. I would say that vimpat "encouraged" me to start drinking again (one of it's side effects is to participate in addictive behavior) so I am glad that only lasted about a month until another Rx got added and oxcar seemed to completely take that desire away immediately. My 2 cents: cannabis is a million times better. It isn't addictive, isn't carcinogenic, and has medicinal properties that can potentially help you rather than harm you or the Rx you are on. Same advise with that. Start slow with a friend and try different kinds until you find one that is effective for your symptoms. Depending on the strain one or 2 hits can be effective enough to start and comparable to one drink. Ideally don't smoke, vaporizing is much better, or take edibles or concentrated oils but start very small with those. (CBD oil is from industrial hemp and is different than cannabis or cannabis oil). Cannabis helps with my back injury pain, sleep, dealing with Rx side effects,  depression from this situation of not working, driving, being on pins and needles and having everyone around you on pins and needles because you are. I used cannabis since 13/14 but I have become used to the "recreational" side effects and really only use it as a medicine everyday like my other anti-epileptic or anti-convulsant drugs to always keep a therapeutic level of cannabis in my system without every really feeling "high" or "stoned" from it. I wish there was an alternative and alcohol wasn't the only recreational drug available to us because in general it sucks, makes you act like an idiot, and poisons your body and mind- even if you don't have epilepsy or some other medical problem. It is legal only because it is too easy to let a bucket of juice rot and any idiot could be doing it at home under their sink or in their garage. Ever had your garbage can smell kind of like wine or beer? Yeah same thing!

It depends on the Rx and your response to it. If you are wanting to have a drink or something here is what I recommend. Have a friend with you who knows about your medical issues. Then try one drink. I would recommend kind of during the day towards the 2nd 1/2 so that it isn't too close to your morning Rx dose and that has fully digested and absorbed but not too late in the day that you still have alcohol in your stomach when you take your evening dose. Start with one drink and then drink a bunch of water after and ideally eat a meal before your evening dose. Then see how it goes and see how you feel the next day. The extra water and food will help with dehydration and hang-overs. Then if you want you can try 2 drinks the next time etc and take it slowly and see what is a tolerable amount for you to have without having any negative effects on your epilepsy. I don't want to encourage you to drink but that is a way that you can figure out what is safe for you hopefully. If there are complications most of the "rescue Rx's" also don't mix well with alcohol so that can be tricky and they may not work the same if needed. I quit drinking to save $ when having a kid long before I started having seizures so when I started having seizures I didn't have an issue wanting to drink (vimpat changed that). To me when I was taking keppra it made the idea of alcohol nauseating and it was revolting to watch people drink "yeast urine" but vimpat got me to try it again several times but now oxcar has made me not even want to try and see if I can drink with it since the 1st dose was added to vimpat. For me alcohol did not interact with vimpat and I even had a drink before and after my evening dose once without any problems or symptoms. I would say that vimpat "encouraged" me to start drinking again (one of it's side effects is to participate in addictive behavior) so I am glad that only lasted about a month until another Rx got added and oxcar seemed to completely take that desire away immediately. My 2 cents: cannabis is a million times better. It isn't addictive, isn't carcinogenic, and has medicinal properties that can potentially help you rather than harm you or the Rx you are on. Same advise with that. Start slow with a friend and try different kinds until you find one that is effective for your symptoms. Depending on the strain one or 2 hits can be effective enough to start and comparable to one drink. Ideally don't smoke, vaporizing is much better, or take edibles or concentrated oils but start very small with those. (CBD oil is from industrial hemp and is different than cannabis or cannabis oil). Cannabis helps with my back injury pain, sleep, dealing with Rx side effects, depression from this situation of not working, driving, being on pins and needles and having everyone around you on pins and needles because you are. I used cannabis since 13/14 but I have become used to the "recreational" side effects and really only use it as a medicine everyday like my other anti-epileptic or anti-convulsant drugs to always keep a therapeutic level of cannabis in my system without every really feeling "high" or "stoned" from it. I wish there was an alternative and alcohol wasn't the only recreational drug available to us because in general it sucks, makes you act like an idiot, and poisons your body and mind- even if you don't have epilepsy or some other medical problem. It is legal only because it is too easy to let a bucket of juice rot and any idiot could be doing it at home under their sink or in their garage. Ever had your garbage can smell kind of like wine or beer? Yeah same thing!