Have U been off Lamictal Cold Turkey?

[Endless]

My epileptologist's nurse called and my epileptologist wants to repeat my Video EEG. For those of you who don't know me well, I have simple and complex partial seizures we guess from the right temporal lobe. We guess, because I haven't had a positive eeg yet.

I've been on Lamictal several months now, and my seizures are down to every 2-3 weeks or so, so the odds that he'd get any activity during the 5 days I'm there are pretty low.

I haven't talked to my epileptologist about the test yet, since my next appointment with him is in a month. I'm afraid he's going to want to take me off the Lamictal, cold turkey while I'm in the hospital, in order to record a seizure.

Has anybody done that? For those of you who have done it, what were the short and long term consequences?

Everybody, do you think that is a good idea or a bad idea?

[Rae1889]

This is where I get confused. Being pulled from meds cold turkey can cause seizures, but not just epileptic. They cause withdrawl seizures as seen in drug addicts etc and they are a non-epileptic form of seizure.

I went off lamictal cold turkey after i had a reaction to it and my face, lips and throat started to swell. I had been put immediately on dilantin though. had a killer headache but no increased seizures as I was still on a med.

[mel239]

I was also pulled off lamictal with allergic rash that spread over me like wildfire but went on another instead-cant remember now

[Endless]

I was pulled off cold turkey before when I got rash the first time around, but was only on 50mg at the time. It wasn't pleasant, had a few seizures like those I had been having all along. Never have gone off when on 300mg.

[CrunchyFrog]

I've never gone off Lamictal. I didn't realize they would actually take people off it cold turkey, I thought it was dangerous. I let my script run out once and didn't have it for 2 days I had a migraine and had 4 partial seizures in one night

[momof3boys]

This is where I get confused. Being pulled from meds cold turkey can cause seizures, but not just epileptic. They cause withdrawl seizures as seen in drug addicts etc and they are a non-epileptic form of seizure.

I went off lamictal cold turkey after i had a reaction to it and my face, lips and throat started to swell. I had been put immediately on dilantin though. had a killer headache but no increased seizures as I was still on a med.

Rae, Im so glad I saw your post about being cold turkey'd from anti seizures drugs and causing seizures like non epileptic ones to show up! This is what happened with me! I was taken off my seizure medications (Keppra XR and Carbatrol ER) both cold turkey by my neurologist when I was admited for a video EEG. Within 40 hours of my last doses, I was experiencing seizures which looked like simple partial seizures. But my dr said the EEG indicated that during those seizures he saw me on the Video, they came up as now seizure activity, and said they were non epileptic seizures! But when I wasnt having a seizure, I had slowing in my left temporal lobe, and activity which says I have epilepsy. So since March he told me to go to see a psych dr due to those seizures that he said were non epileptic seizures! The funny thing is that since he put me back on Keppra XR and at 3000mgs, the seizures are gone, and im back to my normal self. I did research and what I found said that if you cold turkey off Keppra, it can cause you do to have a different kind of seizure than what youre use to having! Gosh I wish my dr was more up to date on this stuff! I have a second appointment with the psych dr on monday the 13th. The only reason I am going is becuase the nurse at my last appointment recommended I see the psych dr to let her review my progress Ive made, and let her send her notes to my dr. Like he has to hear it from another dr, rather than his patient! He has it stuck in his head that I can be taken off of Keppra if put in the hospital, and he thinks I still have non epileptic seizures!

I wish I could find some good information to take to him in regards to being taken off cold turkey off medications and show him what can happen! He doesnt believe me though that the keppra has worked since being put back on it. Drives me nuts!

[Endless]

Do you mean it'll give you seizures, but it won't show up on the eeg? How is that possible? Sounds like it would make the situation even worse.

[momof3boys]

Do you mean it'll give you seizures, but it won't show up on the eeg? How is that possible? Sounds like it would make the situation even worse.

Thats what happened to me. From the research Ive done, it says its part of the withdrawal symptoms from each medication. I was on Carbatrol and Keppra for almost 12 years, during that whole time I had a couple complex partials in that time, but otherwise the two medications controlled my seizures very well. When I look up abruptly stopping medications, it says you have have a seizure you have never had before, and most dr's who specialize in epilepsy can mistake it to be a non epileptic seizure. Now in my case, I was having slowing in my left temporal lobe area, and the dr saw activity that said I had epilepsy, thats why he put me back on the Keppra, but felt since I couldnt produce a grand mal, I didnt need the carbatrol back. But then again, I was only off my medications for a total of 3.5 days, and also inclouding the first 40 hours it took for the medication to get out of my system. so my dr only allowed me about a day and a half of seizures without medication before putting me back on the Keppra.

Im still waiting for the MRI results... I got a feeling Im going to have to call on those!

[Dutch mom]

My son was weaned off Lamictal in just a few days because Lamictal was making his epilepsy worse. It was replaced by Keppra in just one wekke (add on to valoprate and clobazam.) We saw only more seizures while we raised Lamictal and is was on this med he started to have grand mals (unfortunatly those didn't disappear with the Lamictal.)
I can't speak for my son and don't know how he felt because he can't tell me. But we didn't notice cold turkey effects or other weird signals like we did when we weaned of Topamax, Clobazam and several other meds.