Dilantin & Depakote

My son has been on Felbatol for 7 months. After many med failures and VNS surgery, the Felbatol was prescribed as the last resort for my son's intractible seizures. After making him so ill that he was in the hospital for 10 days, his dose was lowered to 600mg. twice daily and we have had our miracle for our son. He has had one small seizure in 7 months. Before the Felbatol, he was having seizures almost every day. His life was miserable and the meds weren't working.(Topamax, Keppra, Dilantin. Plus, Diastat- which we had to use almost daily to stop the seizures.) I cannot tell you the joy I feel to see my son free from the seizures. We had little hope that the Felbatol would work, as nothing had for the past 4 years. With the correct dosage, he has been seizure free since November. We were able to take him off the Topamax and Dilantin, and are now slowly decreasing his Keppra.The side effects of note are loss of appetite and nausea. There were reports of aplastic anemia and liver damage years ago, and the drug was pulled for awhile. Doctors stopped prescribing it except in extreme cases. As long as you have your labs done regularly, our neurologist wasn't too worried about this. In the small number of cases in which he prescribed it, the Felbatol worked well in controlling the seizures, but the patient couldn't continue on it because of the nausea and vomiting/weight loss. My son is eating well and has no nausea or vomiting since the initial "overdosing". We had his labs done last week and are waiting for the results. The Felbatol levels take longer than the other meds.I am guessing that since your doctor suggested the Felbatol, that you are in the same situation my son was in ? Sorry for the long post, but I know how frustrating and frightening it is to be in the position you are in right now and wanted to offer any info I had.Best of luck !

Most people have never heard of Felbatol either. It came out in 1993 with a great deal of promise for siezure control. Unfortunately, a side effect of the drug is aplastic enemia (liver failure/death). Presently, anyone taking the drug has to have weekly liver tests done. The Dilantin and Depakote worked fine for me for about 18 years, until recently. After having a blood test done shortly after having a siezure they found that my system was no longer absorbing the meds to have any effective siezure control. Yes, I did have tremors. The tremors were annoying from time to time but strangely seemed to bother family and friends more than me.So, they began giving me Trileptal as a new anti-siezure med. They slowly increased the dosage to the point were I began to experience side effects. It was at that point my neurologist reduced the Trileptal level, to minimize the side effects, and began adding Keppra on. I've been on the Keppra for just two weeks now but really feel fine. My neurologist wanted me to consider the Felbatol because even though of the risks of liver failure it is a highly effective anti-siezure med. But, that's why I created this post because I really wanted some human input not just a dry pharmological data sheet. Why did they switch you from Keppra to Depakote?