Still having seizures on Lamotrigine

Hi, Thank you for posting and we understand your concerns. Treatment and how the body may react to certain medications varies for each individual. When seizures that are difficult to control, meaning you continue to have seizures after a year or after taking two anti-seizure medications, you may want to consider seeking more specialize care for your epilepsy at an epilepsy center.  https://www.epilepsy.com/living-epilepsy/find-epilepsy-specialist/find-epilepsy-center A comprehensive epilepsy center is a group of health care professionals who specialize in the diagnosis, care, and treatment of people with seizures and epilepsy. Usually led by an epileptologist, (epilepsy specialist), who can help explore all treatment options and determine what individual treatment plan may be best for you. To find an epileptologist near you, please visit: https://www.epilepsy.com/living-epilepsy/find-epilepsy-specialistIt’s important that you’re able to identify your triggers like stress, which is one of the most commonly reported triggers. https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/triggers-seizures/stress-and-epilepsyManaging stress is critical to your mental and physical health. You may want to consider participating in treatment, seizure and lifestyle management programs, which can help people learn skills to better manage their epilepsy and its effects on daily life: https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/managing-your-epilepsy/what-managing-epilepsy-well-network  To learn more about strategies & resources to help manage your stress, visit: https://www.epilepsy.com/living-epilepsy/healthy-living/stress-and-wellness/managing-stressTracking your seizures and documenting how you're feeling in detail, (like you’ve done in your post), will be very helpful to review with your doctors, to help detect any potential patterns with your seizures. My Seizure Diary:https://www.epilepsy.com/living-epilepsy/epilepsy-foundation-my-seizure-diaryis a great tool for identifying & tracking seizures, triggers, setting reminders, managing medications & side effects, recording medical history, moods, behaviors, and other therapies or personal experiences, that may affect seizures and wellness, which can be shared with your healthcare team. Additionally,you may always contact our 24/7 Helpline, where trained information specialists are available to answer your questions, offer help, hope, support, guidance,and access to national and local resources. 1-800-332-1000,or contactus@efa.org. epilepsy.com/helpline  Or contact your local Epilepsy Foundation: https://www.epilepsy.com/affiliates, find support groups, events, and programs in your community.

I’ve been on several different medications and am just now adding lamotrigine to my treatment. The one that I am still on that has been most effective for me and that I don’t experience any side effects is Topamax, although some doctors say that it can affect cognition...I haven’t had that problem. I’ve also had positive effects on other AEDs like Keppra and Trileptal, but I’ve never experienced full seizure control even when taken in combination. I am hopeful that the combination of Topamax and Lamotrigine aka Lamictal will help if I can tolerate the side effects or if they go away because I’ve had quite a few so far. Topamax is also good for preventing migraines if you have those. Also, you mentioned stress may be a trigger for seizures. I wonder if a better description might be over exertion. Sometimes when we overdo it, that can cause a seizure and we tend to associate over exertion with stress. When I went for my VEEG monitoring they discovered that sleep deprivation/over exertion was a potential trigger for me, but not necessarily stress. Stress comes from a desire to be in control, whereas what you described was that you just finished up school, so that suggests that you may have been overextending yourself. Hope that distinction helps.