Dosage , Toxicity , Nutrition

[karbhari]

hi all

maya is 8 yrs old now, abt 35 kgs and has had a sudden increase in the frequency of her seizures. She used to get it once a year now it is once a month !

She is taking Oleptal 1050 mg/day

Now the Doctor wants to increase it to 1200 mg/day. Is this high / low for a child of her age/wt.

In the mean time i also want to do somethings myself.

1)

I want to monitor/modify her nutrition/diet and try to decrease frequency with a diet more suitable for a patient with epilepsy....

Any ideas/sources/books/links I could study


2) I know the anti-epileptic drugs have high toxicity , is there anything I can do to deToxify/clean up her system ?

Thanks for the help

Karbhari

[Crystal11]

Most seizure meds do have risks in taking them. I am taking Keppra XR 3000mg and Lamictal 400mg per day. I used to take Tegretol XR 600mg per day a long with the Keppra but personally decided to tell my neurologist that I didn't want to be on three meds. Just too much and worrisome for me.

Most of the times the neurologist sets the mediaction at a level that is decent for the patient. As long as they tolerate it phsycally, emotional and have a good quality of life, ex better seizure control- this is considered good.
If the patient isn't feeling well, having more seizures than before or showing signs of toxicity, then its time to get off of the med.
Contact your neurologist/doctor and let them know you're worried about what could possibly happen to your child if she continues to take the medication.
They can tell you how they think it will work and if there are signs of toxicity.

Make sure to read the information page to know the signs of problems.
I hope things go well and her seizures become under more control.

I have complex partial seizurs and used to have up to 20 smaller episodes a day and 1-3 longer complex partials a month. Now that I'm on meds, I don't have near that. Not really in good control of my seizures but don't hardly have the shorter ones anymore.

Take care,
Crystal and her guide, Umbro

[Nakamova]

Hi Karbhari --

Here is the dosing info for Oleptal (also known as Trileptal or Oxcarbamazepine):

Children 4 to 16 years of age:
Initial dose of 8 to 10 mg/kg, generally not to exceed 600 mg/day, given twice daily; target maintenance dose should be achieved over 2 weeks and is dependent upon patient weight (900 mg/day for 20 to 29 kg; 1,200 mg/day for 29.1 to 39 kg; 1,800 mg/day for more than 39 kg).

So it sounds like your daughter's dose is still in the accepted range.

However, I think you are right to be concerned about side effects -- it's always great to try and keep the dosage as low as possible, and to find ways to minimize any potential seizure triggers as well.

You might want to search here on CWE for RobinN's entries about her approach to using diet (particularly gluten-free) to avoid meds while controlling her daughter's seizures. If you search on google for "DogtorJ" you'll also find good information about diets and health.