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Speech problems - Keppra/Lamictal
Fri, 04/15/2011 - 18:03I am checking with the group to see if any of you have had the same problems. I
am taking 2000 mg Keppra and 450 mg Lamictal each day. I often have headaches
and have noticed an increase in speech problems. Most the time it is word
recall. I often replace words with other words. Lately, I need to slow down my
speech to get out what I want to say.
My level for Lamictal is good and my Neurologist said my Keppra level doesn't
need to be checked. He wants to put me on a third medication because I still
have myoclonic seizures. It is supposed to be related to Keppra and the side
effects are dizziness and headaches.
He told me my medications shouldn't be causing the speech problems and he thinks
it is seizure activity in my brain causing damage to that area. So, I am
checking with the rest of the group to see if they have had speech problems with
Keppra or Lamictal. Or, if they have seen a progression of worsening speech due
to uncontrolled seizure brain activity.
am taking 2000 mg Keppra and 450 mg Lamictal each day. I often have headaches
and have noticed an increase in speech problems. Most the time it is word
recall. I often replace words with other words. Lately, I need to slow down my
speech to get out what I want to say.
My level for Lamictal is good and my Neurologist said my Keppra level doesn't
need to be checked. He wants to put me on a third medication because I still
have myoclonic seizures. It is supposed to be related to Keppra and the side
effects are dizziness and headaches.
He told me my medications shouldn't be causing the speech problems and he thinks
it is seizure activity in my brain causing damage to that area. So, I am
checking with the rest of the group to see if they have had speech problems with
Keppra or Lamictal. Or, if they have seen a progression of worsening speech due
to uncontrolled seizure brain activity.
Comments
Re: Speech problems - Keppra/Lamictal
Submitted by michaelbradt on Sat, 2011-04-16 - 12:57
My son (15yrs old) is currently taking 750mg of Keppra-once a day. Since he started on Keppra, I have noticed his speach is a little slurry and it seems like it is in the same tone... no matter the mood, he seems to speak as he is sleepy.
Re: Speech problems - Keppra/Lamictal
Submitted by 3Hours2Live on Sun, 2011-04-17 - 03:55
Hi SpecialNeeds,
Speech problems are a major problem with my life of epilepsy. It's about like I had to learn American English twice. The first time was a rough oral learning in early grade school (firstly labeled retarded), and a much smoother learning years later in junior high school through different writing and typing. My English speech fluctuates between these two extremes, while also being overridingly controlled by neurological impairments from epilepsy. Lastly labeled at university as magna cum laude, though no subsequent job offers soon as clues of epilepsy become involved.
The "thinking" to speak can have both oral motor training components and/or non-motor components and/or other than oral motor components. Keppra (levetiracetam) is most likely to improve performance levels of verbal behaviour, while Lamictal (lamotrigine) has a smaller level of verbal behavioural improvement with many epilepsies. Most of my direct experiences are with Keppra, Dilantin, and Tegretol, but I was reluctant to try lamotrigine because of moderately rare reports of it weighting aggravation of oromotor apraxia, which would interfere with word recall in "thinking" using oral motor components (during major fads of "speed reading", many lessons were dedicated to minimizing the oral motor components of reading (such as the partial mouthing of the words with the reading), to gain reading speed (at the expense of the oral artistic aspects)).
For me, the "intoxication effects" in therapeutic ranges for Dilantin and Tegretol greatly influenced my speech and word recall, and while I got use to it with Dilantin over time periods of stable levels, my Dilantin levels were difficult to maintain. I never did get use to the side-effects of Tegretol. My second try with regular Keppra minimized the previously moderately severe side-effects of Keppra, with only minor skin sensitivity and seeming greater tendency to cold/flu infections/breathing aggravations remaining.
With intermittent use of Keppra, Keppra would help control my migraine headaches, but with continuous use of Keppra, Keppra doesn't help much with migraines, except maybe a greater frequency of painless migraines over painful migraines. Phases of migrainous headaches can also cause verbal disturbances: "At times, patients experience marked word-finding difficulties during migraine attacks or just prior to them." "Language & Epilepsy" By Yvan Lebrun, & F. Fabbro (2005), page 44.
Research Notes: Piracetam and Levetiracetam, are fairly interesting: http://www.pwsdots.org/ResearchNotes/Piracetam
Keppra helps speech: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16971185
snippets on word-finding/migraine: http://books.google.com/books?id=rCE-pRCtTygC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Lebrun+%26+Fabbro&hl=en&ei=FViqTeLACoGgsQO2van6DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=word-finding&f=false
for apraxia: http://books.google.com/books?id=rCE-pRCtTygC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Lebrun+%26+Fabbro&hl=en&ei=FViqTeLACoGgsQO2van6DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=apraxia&f=false
for oromotor example: http://books.google.com/books?id=mxE2FYWoY0wC&pg=PA1192&dq=Lamotrigine+speech&hl=en&ei=z2eqTcTgAYu6sAO604X6DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBTge#v=onepage&q=Lamotrigine%20speech%20constitute&f=false
epilepsy opercular syndrome word finding: http://books.google.com/books?id=zmOiOGFSYJYC&pg=PA259&lpg=PA259&dq=epilepsy+opercular+syndrome+word+finding&source=bl&ots=v5yk3o7H9R&sig=BIaf-1HY9WTqCA1vYw4i6uK9WT4&hl=en&ei=6JKqTbfrPIiasAOq9tT5DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=epilepsy%20opercular%20syndrome%20word%20finding&f=false
Tadzio
http://www.pwsdots.org/ResearchNotes/Piracetam
http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/content/40/5/132.extract
http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=125
http://en.islamtoday.net/node/771
hylephobia and hirrient
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10987324
Re: Speech problems - Keppra/Lamictal
Submitted by Allina on Sat, 2011-04-16 - 12:08
I have been taking Keppra for about four weeks now, and we have been gradually increasing my dosage until we hit the max. I am currently on 2,000 mg a day. I have noticed speech issues as well, but I want to say I was having them beforehand. I have always been very good in my speaking, my college speech professor said I had what it took to become a motivational speaker. But, as my seizures went undiagnosed and untreated, I began to feel a little different and started having more problems with speech (espcially slurring my speech at times). Keppra also makes me dizzy, woozy, lightheaded, coordination off, exhaustion, and moody.
When you replace words with other words, that sounds like aphasia. I have been dealing with that, but only started noticing it after taking the keppra. I am also developing some sort of stammering problem and the uhs and ahhs that Ann was explaining sound very familiar. Other times I will stop mid-sentence and forget everything we were even talking about, and need someone to remind me. It feels like I'm trying to get out a phrase, but I'm almost too excited, and it just comes out like a kid would say "you know, I, I I I, uh I I uh.. um you know I have felt this way, f-for a w-while now." I didn't start noticing this problem growing until the Keppra.
BUT BUT BUT! I will NOT say that it is the Keppra, because I do not know for sure. I would talk to your neurologist again, if he/she is not helping you or does not seem to want to aid in the problem, you can try and get a second opinion. Like I said, I was starting to deal with some of this before the Keppra and that is why we started to become more urgent in trying to determine if whether or not the things I have been experiencing are seizures.
Epileptic, complex partial diagnosed March 21st, 2011.
AJ
I have been taking Keppra for about four weeks now, and we have been gradually increasing my dosage until we hit the max. I am currently on 2,000 mg a day. I have noticed speech issues as well, but I want to say I was having them beforehand. I have always been very good in my speaking, my college speech professor said I had what it took to become a motivational speaker. But, as my seizures went undiagnosed and untreated, I began to feel a little different and started having more problems with speech (espcially slurring my speech at times). Keppra also makes me dizzy, woozy, lightheaded, coordination off, exhaustion, and moody.
When you replace words with other words, that sounds like aphasia. I have been dealing with that, but only started noticing it after taking the keppra. I am also developing some sort of stammering problem and the uhs and ahhs that Ann was explaining sound very familiar. Other times I will stop mid-sentence and forget everything we were even talking about, and need someone to remind me. It feels like I'm trying to get out a phrase, but I'm almost too excited, and it just comes out like a kid would say "you know, I, I I I, uh I I uh.. um you know I have felt this way, f-for a w-while now." I didn't start noticing this problem growing until the Keppra.
BUT BUT BUT! I will NOT say that it is the Keppra, because I do not know for sure. I would talk to your neurologist again, if he/she is not helping you or does not seem to want to aid in the problem, you can try and get a second opinion. Like I said, I was starting to deal with some of this before the Keppra and that is why we started to become more urgent in trying to determine if whether or not the things I have been experiencing are seizures.
Epileptic, complex partial diagnosed March 21st, 2011.
AJ