New to zonisamide

[j.j.]

Hi All, Just added zonisamide(zonegran) to the mix, already on Keppra and Phenytoin just wondered if anyone would be kind enough to give me their experiences with zonisamide.
janet

[Nakamova]

Hi Janet --

Zonisamide was problematic for me. It was the only anti-epileptic drug I was on, so it may work differently for you. Zonisamide is called the "supermodel drug" -- because it makes you skinny and dumb. That's what happened for me. I had some vocabulary issues (trying to think of "post office", all I could come up with was "mail house"), but my main problem was that Zonisamide works as an appetite suppressant, and it irritated my stomach as well. I wasn't able to eat properly, and suffered some of the side effects of low blood sugar -- dizziness, depression, crankiness. Since low blood sugar is a seizure trigger for me, the Zonisamide ended up hurting as much as it helped. I started getting warning signs, and was about to ask my doctor if I could switch meds, when I had a massive seizure. Subsequently switched to Lamictal.

Make sure you drink plenty of water while on Zonisamide, since it tends to dehydrate you.

[Nakamova]

And one more thing -- don't drink a lot of grapefruit juice with Zonisamide. The grapefruit interferes with the Zonisamide metabolism.

[j.j.]

Hi Nakamova, Thanks for your reply sorry for the delay in replying as I have had another visit to hospital. As yet I don't seem to have had side effects but I only started the phenytoin on 30 th March and is still giving side effects so difficut to definately say that zonisamide isn't giving me any.
Again thankyou very much for your reply.
Janet

[Blondie47]

j.j.


hello!

My DD, 14 had a run with Zonegran Dec 2009-Feb 2010. It was used as adjunct therapy with Trileptal to control frontal lobe seizures.

Be sure to watch for loss of appetite, depression, and short term memory issues. These were problems that caused us to stop using this drug. It just wasn't the right one for her system. Everyone is different and the process for us has been trial and error.

Currently we are using Topamax as adjunct therapy with Trileptal and have had great success. We have also decided to use Neurofeedback therapy this summer as well.

Good Luck and take care