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meds for absence and tonic clonic seizures

Wed, 05/11/2005 - 22:58
Hi, my son is 7 years old and one and a half years ago he was diagnosed with absence seizures and then 6 months ago he started with tonic clonic seizures, he has just come out of hospital after spending 12 days there, he was having seizures every hour (tonic clonic) for the first 8 days and then he was just having the absences every 20 minutes. he was taking epillim and lamictal and he got worse, then they put him on epillim, and ethosuximide and clobazam, now they want to replace the ethosuximide with topamax, i have told them i can't give this medication to my son, the side affects are really horrendous, and i can't give my child a drug which will cause greater harm. Does anyone have any ideas about which drug combinations seem to work for absences and tonic clonic, because some drugs for tonic clonic can make absences worse and visa versa. I know all drugs have some kind of side affects but some are just not worth it, I feel i owe it to my child to make some kind of informed choice for him without causing him to become so forgetful that he can't add 1 +1 . Any advice would be much appreciated, i am so devestated by this and i am so scared for him. thanks, from a desperate mother.

Comments

RE: meds for absence and tonic clonic seizures

Submitted by grez-monkey on Wed, 2005-05-11 - 22:58

susan2, Personally, I have no idea what itÂ’s like being a parent with a child who has epilepsy, but I do know what itÂ’s like being a person with epilepsy because I have it myself. IÂ’m very sorry for this being the reasons why you had to join, but I want to say that you are more than welcome to be with this group. WeÂ’re here to help everyone by giving support, share our stories and experiences, ask questions, reply with answers we already know, or go searching, scan over the results, and see what might be out there.

 

It took me a while to put the details you mentioned together, then go searching around and possibly located something that might be helpful. Ethosuximide is used on patients with absence seizures, particularly in young children. It has no effect against (or may even worsen) most other types of seizures. This may be the reason why they want to replace the ethosuximide. Epilim is used for both absence and t/c seizures, along with myoclonic, complex partials and juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. You may want to look over more of the details about juvenile myoclonic epilepsy to see if the description could be matching to what takes place whenever your sonÂ’s seizures occur. A good amount of the information is located at www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/epilepsy_juvenilemyoclonic.html

Topamax is somewhat useful for the absence and t/c seizures, plus both the simple & complex partials, secondarily generalized seizures and myoclonic seizures.

 

My question for youÂ…is the doctor starting your son on what appears to be high dosage amounts, or starting at a low dosage and slowly increasing the dosage little by little, week by week?

 

There are many different medication combinations that can become useful, but every person need to do a trial and error like test in order to find the most effective, with very little or no side effects.

 

Please let us know the results and there is no need to be afraid to ask us, or doctors, more question about this matter.

Bruce CJ

susan2, Personally, I have no idea what itÂ’s like being a parent with a child who has epilepsy, but I do know what itÂ’s like being a person with epilepsy because I have it myself. IÂ’m very sorry for this being the reasons why you had to join, but I want to say that you are more than welcome to be with this group. WeÂ’re here to help everyone by giving support, share our stories and experiences, ask questions, reply with answers we already know, or go searching, scan over the results, and see what might be out there.

 

It took me a while to put the details you mentioned together, then go searching around and possibly located something that might be helpful. Ethosuximide is used on patients with absence seizures, particularly in young children. It has no effect against (or may even worsen) most other types of seizures. This may be the reason why they want to replace the ethosuximide. Epilim is used for both absence and t/c seizures, along with myoclonic, complex partials and juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. You may want to look over more of the details about juvenile myoclonic epilepsy to see if the description could be matching to what takes place whenever your sonÂ’s seizures occur. A good amount of the information is located at www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/epilepsy_juvenilemyoclonic.html

Topamax is somewhat useful for the absence and t/c seizures, plus both the simple & complex partials, secondarily generalized seizures and myoclonic seizures.

 

My question for youÂ…is the doctor starting your son on what appears to be high dosage amounts, or starting at a low dosage and slowly increasing the dosage little by little, week by week?

 

There are many different medication combinations that can become useful, but every person need to do a trial and error like test in order to find the most effective, with very little or no side effects.

 

Please let us know the results and there is no need to be afraid to ask us, or doctors, more question about this matter.

Bruce CJ

RE: RE: meds for absence and tonic clonic seizures

Submitted by jrigby on Tue, 2005-05-17 - 12:31

Hello,

 My son just recently had a "grand mal" seizure and is 5 yrs old. He had his at night while laying in bed next to my wife. Convultions, eyes open with a blank stare and limp as a noodle 1 second and then stiff as a board with his jaws locked and clamped down with slowed breathing. It was the Scarriest thing I have ever experienced in my whole life holding what seemed like my lifeless son in my arms for about 10 minutes. We took him for testing and the EEG turned up with an abnormal reading and he was put on DEPAKOTE. Starting low dosages and working up to the max on a 6 week period. We are scheduled for more testes after the 6 weeks. This seems to be the choice of drugs out there for this type of seizure. You might want to ask about this for your son. I hope everything turns ok out ok for you and your little guy. -J.R.   

Hello,

 My son just recently had a "grand mal" seizure and is 5 yrs old. He had his at night while laying in bed next to my wife. Convultions, eyes open with a blank stare and limp as a noodle 1 second and then stiff as a board with his jaws locked and clamped down with slowed breathing. It was the Scarriest thing I have ever experienced in my whole life holding what seemed like my lifeless son in my arms for about 10 minutes. We took him for testing and the EEG turned up with an abnormal reading and he was put on DEPAKOTE. Starting low dosages and working up to the max on a 6 week period. We are scheduled for more testes after the 6 weeks. This seems to be the choice of drugs out there for this type of seizure. You might want to ask about this for your son. I hope everything turns ok out ok for you and your little guy. -J.R.   

RE: meds for absence and tonic clonic seizures

Submitted by angel_lts on Thu, 2005-05-12 - 07:19
Susan, I know this is very hard for you and stay strong, for your child needs you now. I cant imagine dealing with what I deal with for myself to do it for my child. Breaks my heart. Topamax can cause so just beware. You are right you will have side effects from all meds. SOme more than others. I would stick to the more recent drugs for they have less side effects. Also try to stick with one drug if at all possible. The more assortment of drugs you take, the harder it is for them all to get along with each other and more side effects.Hope that helps.Stay strong.http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/EpilepsyApproach/lisa

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