Starting Topamax

[malso]

Hi:

My neurologist has suggested adding Topamax to my current Tegretol to try and eliminate the complex partial seizures I'm experiencing about 2 or 3 times a week.

After doing some research on the nicknamed Dopamax, I'm interested to hear from others who also took this drug and Tegretol at the same time - or those who took (are taking) Topamax to control their complex partial seizures.

Any questions or comments are most appreciated.

Thanks kindly,
Malso

[Minkels]

Hi Malso...welcome to the to the site & glad you found us.

I don't have complex partial seizures; mine are the tonic-clonic and simple partial variety, but I do take Topamax and can give you some of my experiences with it. Topamax definitely earned its nickname of "Dopamax" when I first started it, and I began on a very low dose (25 mg a day!) at first. I would forget words, my short term memory got pretty lousy, and I would have to re-read things to remember them...none of these things are typical of me. It took the doctor about 3 weeks to ramp me up to my current dose of 200 mg a day, and after about 3 months on this dose, it hasn't been so much of a stupid-making pill for me...lol. Pretty much all of the cognitive side effects have worn off (good thing, or else I would have asked for something else). If I am overly tired, I do have the rare instance where I walk into a room and forget what I was going to do.

The physical side effects I had were weight loss, which was major for me--18 pounds that I did not need to lose since I was thin to begin with. Of course, a lot of people say that this side effect is welcome since a lot of the other anti-epileptic drugs tend to cause a lot of weight gain. It's also caused some blurred vision, but nothing major to the point where I need glasses. Not to be gross, but it causes diarrhea at higher doses, and this is why I was stopped at 200 mg and Lamictal XR was added. When you first start Topamax, it causes a kind of tingly feeling in your hands/fingers; this went away for me after a couple of weeks but it can be annoying at first. I also had a bit of gait unsteadiness--which I am told is a rare side effect--and it makes me very thirsty for some reason.

I haven't had too many issues with the Topamax; it's just during the titration period it can be a bit of a pain to deal with, especially the cognitive side effects.

I hope that adding the Topamax goes well for you, and again, welcome!

[Endless]

Malso,

I don't take both at the same time. I took Topamax for awhile, though.

I just wanted to say that if you need to lose weight, this is the drug for you. You won't feel going to the grocery store to get food, but if you do you won't feel like cooking. If you do go ahead and try to cook, you won't remember how to cook it, or you may not be able to find the ingredients in the fridge (when they were there on the top shelf the whole time). If you do manage to cook it you won't have a apetite. If you do make yourself eat it anyway it will taste terrible - kind of metalic. I lost 30 lbs in two months on Topamax.

Try here to see all the side effects: www.askapatient.com