Side effects?

[joeyrory]

I've been on Lamictal for around 6 months (I think) and Clobazam (a benzo) for maybe 4 months or so. I'm having much better seizure control (from generalized seizures every 10 or so days to them less than monthly) and same with complex partials but I'm still having simple partials (which don't bother me a whole lot).

I'm worried my neuro is going to up my dose of either and I really don't want to have worsened side effects. It's making me want to under exaggerate any seizure activity.

My side effects are memory problems, like a really shocking memory, not just being a bit absent-minded. I've even forgotten whole events from years ago which is really disconcerting...another is verbal issues-struggling to find words, speak articulately and problems with spelling words which has never ever been a problem before. Both these affect my postgraduate degree a lot and I don't think I could cope well if this got worse.

Lastly, I'm having a lot of hair loss. Not male pattern-from everywhere on my head. I don't know if any of these are common side effects of either of these drugs? If not, it would make me feel better about any drug increase later...

 

[cat lover]

side affects

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[valeriedl]

My side effects are memory problems, like a really shocking memory, not just being a bit absent-minded. I've even forgotten whole events from years ago which is really disconcerting...another is verbal issues-struggling to find words, speak articulately and problems with spelling words which has never ever been a problem before. Both these affect my postgraduate degree a lot and I don't think I could cope well if this got worse.

Lastly, I'm having a lot of hair loss. Not male pattern-from everywhere on my head. I don't know if any of these are common side effects of either of these drugs? If not, it would make me feel better about any drug increase later...

One of the meds I'm on is Lamictal and I have just about all of these side effects except the hair loss. I'm not sure if that's common or not.

My neuro usually tries to lower the dosages or take me off of one of my meds because I'm on quite a few at high dosages. He will make a suggestion of what he want's to do but leaves the final decision to me.

If he lowers the dosage or takes me off a med he usually won't put me back on it unless or increase the dosage to what it was unless my seizures start to increase or get worse.

About 4 months ago he lowered the dosage of one of my meds and the type and number of seizures didn't change. This last visit, about 2 weeks ago, he lowered the dosage again. He wasn't too sure about doing it but I said lets try and see what happens. Well I ended up having 4 seizures in the next week so I called him and we decided that it would be a good idea to go back up to the dosage I was at before. Since then I've only had 1 seizure, which is pretty much normal for when and the amount I'd have by this time month. Not sure if that last part made sense or not?

If you are having too much problems with the side effects of the med you might want to talk about switching to another med. I've had to do this several times with different meds. Sometimes it's ok and the seizures are the same or even lessen. But there's always that chance that they could get worse too.