Suicide Risk From 11 Epilepsy Drugs

[vix]

omg i suffer with depression/anziety/suicidal and self harm thoughts/ptsd and ppd - my meds are on that list

[lorianng72]

Does anyone have bad side effects from dilantin? I seem to be depressed and tired a lot. My husband asks me what I'm depressed about so we can talk about it but I can never give an answer because I don't know why.

[Elsie]

I was a meloncholy kind of kid, particularly in puberty. Always thought it was the hormones made me that way. I wonder how our natural personality traits make us predisposed to depression?

When I had my bad spell way back when, I became agoraphobic. My life was such that I was relied on to take on many tasks because my family couldn't. Children were too little and husb. at the time was handicapped and couldn't. So I had no choice but to get myself better somehow.

I do know never to go back on phenobarbitol or mysoline. Blkkk for what that stuff did to me.

My family thought I was crazy. My neighbors thought I was psycho. My minister discounted anything drug related. How I wish all those people would read this whole thread. Today I feel validated.

Right now I'm slightly agoraphobic. I do go out but am very happy to come back home. I have just a few friends and no desire to enlarge that group. The only place I feel content is my home. Otherwise I have anxiety. I wonder how the medicine plays into that.

[Ruth]

Thank you Elsie,

I was put on Mysoline (primidone) for tremors. I did not know that it was phenobarbital. I am allergic to phenobarbital. It needs to be put on the list, here.

I am very tired and I am sleeping more and more. I am going to talk to my doctor about getting off of it. I know I have to do it slowly because I have had status epilepticus in the past. That was before I was put on Mysoline.

[RainbowBrite]

While I don't doubt that those medications could cause mood problems and actions because of them, I do wonder how many people felt depressed or had had suicidal feelings in their past before the studies began. I have bipolar disorder as well, and have had suicidal thoughts before medicated and while on meds (when the levels were too low) and I (personally) don't blame my medications. My asthma medication happens to list wheezing as a side effect, but how many people with asthma were already wheezing?

[Ruth]

I have been on medications for 61 years and I have never had sucicidal thoughts. These medicines have been listed as causing "sucidial thoughts." Sucidal thoughts does not mean that a person is going to commit suicide. There is a big difference.