Leaving Keppra = Starting Lamictal

[alivenwell]

I have had excellent results with Lamictal. I'm taking 400mg daily. I've never been on Keppra. Mysoline is my other medication.

 

[BuckeyeFan]

pdubau Thanks for sharing. I will pray all goes well. I have just weened off depakote to keppra. I take 1000 of keppra, is that much? I also am taking 250 of lamictal a day. So far so good.

1000 mg of keppra is on the lower end. I was on 2000 mg for 5 years with good success until the last year when the side effects got worse. Am down to 250 mg this week and off next. Some members here are as high as 3000-4000 mg which are very high doses. Hope all works out well for you. I never had a tonic-clonic seizure the entire time I was on keppra

 

[pdubau]

Thanks , nice to hear from you. what were the side effects of the keppra for you?
I would really appreciate to know. hope to talk soon.

 

[seizures4ever]

Alright Buckeye!

Finally off the dang Keppra next week! I'm still at 4000mg., but "I have a dream" of being Keppra free. Good for you! Hope the Lamictal works well for you. I didn't really have any major problems with Lamictal. Wish you the same.

-Julie

 

[BuckeyeFan]

Thanks , nice to hear from you. what were the side effects of the keppra for you?
I would really appreciate to know. hope to talk soon.

For most of the 5+ years I was on Keppra, my only major issue was emotions, especially anger/frustration. This is very common with K and is nicknamed Kep-rage. My solution for it was to channel my emotions or temper towards inanimate objects. I would get mad at politicians or sports or just during hard exercise and this generally worked well. Make sure you never let any anger out on family, friends, or co-workers. Go dig in a garden, run a mile, or do anything to remove yourself from the situation.

My reasons for getting off Keppra were cognitive. I became unable to focus at work, memory was getting worse, and making a simple decision became a overwelming task. My Neuro felt that my Keppra had just ran its course and now I am on the Lamictal along with Dilantin.

Give Keppra a chance. It gave me 5 years without a tonic-clonic seizure. That was the longest streak I ever had.

 

[HELP4U]

I started on Lamictal (100mg, 3X per day, about 6 years ago after unsuccessful trioes wit

 

[joan]

My daughter started lamictal oct 2008. She was supposed to take 75 x 2. When we got to 150mg a day, she had her first grand mal. We never thought lamictal worked well for her but wanted to give it time to do its job. She had an allergic reaction to it the week of jan 23rd and was hospitalized for a few days while they weaned her off lamictal onto 1000 keppra. She is still on 25 lamictal for the rest of the week. Im petrified of keppra but am told it is our only hope with myoclonics. ughhhhh.. We are also pulling my daughter out of school, to have her home instructed for a few weeks, till she adjusts. Its been a rough few weeks. They hope to get her off of the lamictal and to lower the dosage of keppra. We shall see*

My son started lamictal 1/2006. We have always been happy with it. It seems to do an excellent job with his grand mals. BUT what we are finding is damage to his cognitive memory, sleep issues and eating issues. We cant be sure if its the meds, the E or just another uncovered issue. His IQ is 123. We are in the hospital with my son tomorrow for a few days to try and figure out if its the meds, and if it is, wean him to something else. Im kinda scared to change him to any new med as his grand mals long ones and Id like him to not have anymore lol

What I am trying to do, is to be aware of the side effects BUT to judge the meds by how they do with my kids and not what I hear.

I wish you well
joan*

 

[BuckeyeFan]

Joan, that is a great example of how meds work differently for everyone. Plus, the effectiveness can change over time. What works so well for your son didn't work for your daughter.

I wouldn't worry too much about that low of a dose of keppra. That is half of what I used to take and only a fourth of what Julie takes. She should do fine. My worst problems took five years to develop.

Best wishes to your kids.:rock:

 

[BuckeyeFan]

Oh yea, by the way

I am now off my Keppra completely with no problems at all. Feeling much better so far on the lamictal.
:woot:

 

[joan]

Congrats *** I am so glad you are feeling better. Like a whole new world. They say IF you can tolerate lamictal it really a great drug. Im so glad its working for you.

The Keppra is working great on the myoclonics but its kicking her butt. She is home instructed the next few weeks, to give her time to adjust. She seems to wake later and groggy and then about 9pm? Kick into high speed and overdrive lol We are trying to be consistent and have her take her meds by 7pm sooo... hopefully.. that "high" feeling slows down so she can sleep. She also mentioned crazy dreams and one other experience that kinda freaked me out. We talked about it and IF it happens again we will call the Dr. As of right now they see the Dr feb 25th. HE did say he may try to lower it alittle to help with the butt kicking* Im not so sure she will be able to stay on keppra, but we shall see.

Enjoy your weekend
joan*

 

[brain]

I am now off my Keppra completely with no problems at all. Feeling much better so far on the lamictal.
:woot:

YeeHaw! Another Lammy Fan on the board!
It sure works baby, huh?

:tup:

 

[seizures4ever]

Congrats Buckeye...no more Keppra! :woot::clap:

Glad to hear that Lamictal is doing well for you!

Wishing you the best. :e:

-Julie

 

[Colourbox]

OK, big time nervous here! :huh::tdown::dontknow:

Due to several issues, I am going to start to ramp down off Keppra and be started on Lamictal as of today. It will take 5 weeks to ramp up on Lamictal to 200 mg per day. I don't know if it will go higher after that. The Keppra has been reduced to 1000 mg per day for that period and it will eventually go away.

The reason for the change is that I am having a terrible time with cognitive thought. Focus and concentration seem to be out the door for me. This has been an issue for me for many years, but never anywhere near this extent. Simple tasks like this message take me a long time to type. The finished message may not sound too confused, but it takes awhile to put it all together. I usually don't realize how long something is taking me until I get done, if I ever get done.

I have also been experiencing a lot of shakiness, trembling, and what seem like myoclonic jerks. He also suspects that I may be having Simple Partials, though this is not confirmed by any tests. I had suspected these, but pinpointed them more this fall watching sports. I would miss a play or two and wonder how it went from 1st down to 3rd down. My speaking has also slowed. Not just normal yacking, but when I am trying to get a point across or describe something.

Along with the med change comes the joy of NO Driving for awhile. I don't like that, but understand the reality and will abide by it. It shouldn't be for more than 2-3 months (fingers crossed). Better than forever.

My Neuro seemed to think that my body had simply ran its course on the Keppra and it was not my best option for the future. He also lowered my Dilantin (Phenytek) to 500 mg because my levels were testing too high. They are back to normal now.

So after 5+ years without a tonic-clonic, I am going to risk a change. I trust my Neuro and think he is right. I can't keep going spending portions of my day in a stupor with no ambition, initiative, or energy to do much of anything.

One other scary thing is that I don't really remember ever having the SPs or Myoclonics like I am having now. I know my focus was avoiding TCs and auras for 22 years before Keppra, but even then I don't remember these types of symptoms.

I saw this message though searching the risks of changing from Keppra to Lamotrigine.

I have recently asked my dr if I could change from Keppra to another drug as its side-effects have been wiping me out. Fatigue, tiredness the main side-effects, which are heavily impacting daily life and work.

He has put me onto Lamotrigine. I am currently on 750mg keppra twice a day. Lamotrigine has been introduced slowly:

Once every two days for two weeks
Once a day for two weeks
Twice a day for two weeks
One morning, twice and night for two weeks
Twice morning, twice a night for two weeks

And stepping down my Keppra after.

Just yesterday I upped my dose from once a day to twice a day and only this morning had my first clonic-tonic seizure of the year and it has been quite powerful, wiping me out physically for the day. I don't think it is any coincidence.

Before that I had found myself getting more tired but I thought that was expected as I also take Sodium Valporate. So Sodium Valporate, Keppra and Lamotragine together was bound to make me more tired.

However I'm worried I will now get more seizures, and more powerful seizures as I ramp up the Lamotrigine. Or if this and other seizures may occurs as part of the brain adjusting to the new medication?

I have seen some other posts on other forums where people have done the same change in meds and had an increase in seizures too and their clinicians have told them to persevere with the dose increase until the end.

I'm wondering if anyone else on here has experience of this and what they did? And what their doctors advice has been?

Any help on this would be really appreciated!

Joe x

 

[Nakamova]

Hey Joe, welcome to CWE!

Sodium Valproate interacts with Lamotrigine in a way that significantly increases the amount of it (the Lamotrigine) in your system. So, as long as you are on the Valproate, the Lamotrigine is extra-potent -- which doesn't bode well if your seizure is a reaction to the Lamotrigine increase. Have you spoken to your neurologist about your t-c seizure? She or he may want to stop the ramp-up. A fair number of people do have their seizures made worse by AEDs, for different reasons. You can read about it here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/stor...C5A6E30D9C5A0B.f02t01?v=1&t=jdga8byt&d6a40dab

Ultimately, it's your call on whether to proceed with a med that may be problematic.

 

[Colourbox]

Hi, thanks for the reply and the info. Oh I never knew that Lamotrigine is extra potent with Sodium Valproate, this is worrying. I do want to reduce my Keppra because of the side-effects, but Sodium Valporate is my main drug, the other one is there to support it.

My seizure Dr. started me on Lamotrigine, I am still quite low on the step up and wondered weather it is worth perusing for a bit longer as its only been a day on ethe new increase.

I'm in the UK, it's a Friday and it can take weeks to get to see a specialist Dr. on the NHS so I'm inbetween a rock and a hard place for now. Any short-term advice as to what to do would be appreciated.

PS. That link does not work for me.

j^±^

 

[Nakamova]

I think the next step depends on your comfort level. You can:
A. Stay at the current dose of lamotrigine until you can speak to or see the neuro.
OR
B. Taper down on the lamotrigine (slowly) back down to the once-a-day dose and staying there until you can see or speak to the neuro.

Not sure why the link isn't working but you can google "Aggravation of epilepsy by anti-epileptic drugs", and information should come up.

I hope you stay seizure-free while waiting to get in touch with your neuro.

 

[Colourbox]

I think I may stay on this dose, whilst I try and get an appointment with my Neuro doctor, and see what happens. If anymore episodes happen between now and then I will slowly step it down.

I will check out the info on Google.

Thank you for your help, very kind.

j^±^