MJW,

That's a tough one. My son has been on Lamictal for several years. Recently, his dose has increased and it defenitely has affected his schoolwork. He is in college and barely gets through. He was an A/B student before taking such high doses. Recently, he began using s tape recorder and listening to his notes/lectures before going to bed which helps his memory somewhat.

I hope this helps, please know you are not alone!

Hi MJW,

Well teenagers end up with that funny bodyclock pattern, ie going to bed later and sleeping in later. It was not easy at all to get up early for school! Plus the whole hormonal thing with teenagers causes no end of grief. Having epilepsy and taking AEDs on top of that, it can be near impossible to seperate what's causing what.

I was diagnosed and put on dilantin at 14 and quite honestly, it made school and studying in general very difficult. That's unfortunately a really common side effect of epilepsy drugs and I really don't know a way around that except for the school to know her situation and to work out a plan for assignment extensions exams etc. That takes some of the stress off. Also, if she's still getting absense seizures then that could be contributing to the forgetfulness. All the AEDs have sleepiness as a side effect and some people are affected more than others. (I'm on lamictal now. definately not as doped as on dilantin).

I strongly advice you don't try caffine in the morning. It's not suitable for teens at the best of times, and for some of us it can be a seizure trigger. From my experience is does nothing to counter the drugs. Is she still increasing her dosage or has that stopped? If she's still increasing then usually the side effects settle once stable on a dose ie not so sleepy.

Dietary changes- I can't think of anything specific, but a balanced diet never hurts. Don't do sugar overloads, sugar rushes followed by the crash can be problematic; artificial sweetener is also under suspicion as a sz trigger. "Grazing" is quite a good practice for us to keep our sugar levels relatively stable, which can be quite effective for avoiding szs. So not skipping breakfast (not easy for teens!), and eating a bit every 3-4 hours rather than just 3 big meals a day. There is a lot of experimenting involved, and it's really difficult trying to tell this stuff to a teenager, so you can only suggest this. If I'd known any of this when I was diagnosed (we weren't told anything way back when) I doubt I would've listened anyway.

Hope this is of some help, and all the best.

Kay