missed meds

[steveo123]

Is it typical for a seizure to result after a single missed dose of meds? My son is taking Carbatrol 2 times a day. His was free from seizures for about 2 years but recently had two. Both happened just a few hours after a single missed dose.

[epileric]

Well missing a dose would definitely increase the chances of a seizure, especially if the meds are not time released

[Endless]

What medication is your son taking? Some meds are longer-acting than others. Lamictal is one example. Being a few hours late with Lamictal isn't as big a deal for me than it was with say, Trileptal. A missed dose of Trileptal and I definitely felt it by evening. Lamictal, I've missed a whole dose and been okay.

The dosage matters, too. If it's just barely at the level to control his seizures and he misses a dose....

A good way to see how fast his medication may clear out of his body is to look at the half-life. That's the time it takes for the level of medication in his system to lower by half (or in other words the time it takes half the drug to be eliminated by his system). Sometimes the doctor has people take their seizure meds 3x/day - this is because that medication has a short half-life and taking it more often helps avoid fluctuation of medication levels in the blood. The longer the half-life the more likely it is that he could miss a dose and not have it affect him as much.

Online it looks like carbatrol has a variable half-life, in some cases 12-17 hours or 30-40 hours. I don't understand the difference. Maybe you can make heads or tails of it?
http://www.drugs.com/pro/carbatrol.html

For comparison's sake, Lamotragine has what's considered a long half-life of around 32 hours and Trileptal's is relatively short - around 8-10 hours.
http://stanfordhospital.org/clinicsm...rbazepine.html
http://www.drugs.com/pro/lamotrigine.html



Also sometimes people's bodies become accustomed to their medication over time and they need the dosage increased, or their bodies or seizures change which also needs a med change.

Q: is there a reason your son is missing doses? Does he refuse to take them? Or is the family forgetting to give them to him? There are a lot of great reminder tools ranging from simple alarms to programs that will automatically call you on the phone to pill bottles that hang around your neck and beep. I always keep an extra supply of pills either in my pocket or purse. They have little air and water-tight pill bottles at the drug store. If I forget a dose I can take it right away no matter where I am.

Be sure to call his neurologist and describe what happened. The neurologist will know what to do.

[momof3boys]

Is the carbatrol the Extended Release kind? If not, then I can totally see why the seizures occured. I was taking Carbatrol ER and Keppra XR. In March, after having a video EEG, they took me off the Carbatrol ER and kept me on the Keppra XR. But the doctor did say that the ER/XR medications will stay in your body longer, compared to the medications that are not ER/XR. So if the Carbatrol is not the ER/XR kind, then just missing the dose by a few hours will greatly increase his chances of having a seizure since there is not medication in his body to prevent a seizure from occuring.

[Nakamova]

In addition to missing the medication, were there any other things that might have been a factorr? Was your son under any stress that might have caused him to miss his meds? Fatigue, illness or other kinds of physical, physiological, or emotional stressors can also play a role in triggering seizures.

[steveo123]

Thanks for the replies! He is on Carbatrol ER. He is 27 years old and is usually very good about taking his meds on time. He uses several reminders but occasionally misses a dose. I also think he has some short term memory issues. He's been on Tergratol and later Carbatrol since his first seizure at 15.

[momof3boys]

whats the dose of Cabatrol ER is he taking daily? I was taking 600mgs twice a day, along with the Keppra XR. But now that Im not taking the Carbatrol ER, If I miss a dose of Keppra XR I will get a seizure, where as before, the Carbatrol ER was like a back up for me, but I dont have that no longer.

has his dr ever said anything about any concerns with him being on it for a long period of time? I started Carbatrol ER at the age of 18, and this year before turning 30, my dr took me off of it. He said if on it for a long time, it can cause health problems to come about and he didnt want that to happen.

[Belinda1961]

Just missing one dose of medication doesn't always bring a seizure on.
It took me missing two doses of medication to seize.

Sometimes there doesn't have to be a reason you can just seize .
It happened with me for years.

Belinda