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Sleepy after taking Sodium Valproate
Sun, 07/30/2017 - 13:36Topic: Medication Issues
My grandfather aged 84 had a focal seizure every month. The doctors gave him 500mg of Sodium Valporate twice a day. It made him feel sleepy almost the whole day, but it was not too bad. He would sit most of the time, could walk but only complained about something not going well. After no improvement on the seizures after 7 months, they added the dose to 800mg twice a day. Immediately after the increment in dose, he spends almost all of his time sleeping. His brain seems to have slowed down a lot, his cognitive skills have gone down and also he has stopped being able to stand or walk. He cannot control his body anymore. He has been given sertaline 50mg to help reduce the effect but it's not helped at all. Has anyone experienced this before? Is there any solution to this? Please share.
it this the only medication
Submitted by Amy Jo on Sun, 2017-07-30 - 16:09
it this the only medication that works for his circumstances (age, kidney/liver function, doesn't interact with other meds he needs, etc)? someone needs to ask and someone needs to point out that his quality of life is not acceptable. it is worthwhile asking about what the other options would be.an older (also so with kidney or liver impairement) body processes drugs differently and sometimes there are significant interaction issues but also there can be some upside in that drugs not considered for a younger person might also be ok. after my mom had what they thought were ministrokes and had seizure issues afterwards, she also had high anxiety and the docs gave her one of the benzos that treats anxiety but also stopped the seizures. since she wasn't expected to live a long time (she was on hospice when the episodes started), the drugs becoming ineffective over time wasn't an issue. everyone has different trade offs.