Vimpat Side Effects

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All I can guess is these are side effects of Vimpat...

For the past four days since I upped my dose, I've been feeling dizzy and out of it. Yesterday and today I've come close to vomiting - or at least felt like I was close...

Today, I was doing something I completely understand, but couldn't seem to remember how to do it... I had to redo the whole process. I've mostly just been sitting at my desk staring at the screen, or browsing this site... Everytime anyone says something to me, I'm just not processing it. I wasn't feeling well the past two days, and I think I just had a little cold instead of side effects, but today I don't feel "sick," I just feel like a zombie and cannot focus on ANYTHING - despite the cups of coffee that I've been drinking to try to wake me up.

Just curious what side effects others have had? I am not sure yet if it is working, as I don't always have partials, but I've only had a couple of short ones in the past week or so. I'm just hoping the side effects go away... At my last dose, the side effects mostly went away after a few days, and were gone completely before I upped my dose (a week later). It's been about a week at this dose, and they seem to be getting worse not better :/ Maybe it's stress from all this class work I have to do - I'm not sure.
 
RunningGirl85

I am just after coming of vimpat, it probably is good if you can take it. When I first started I got that sick feeling and I did get sick a few times, the headaches were not nice and the nightmares were unreal for me as I increased the sick feeling left and the headaches were not as often, then that kind of feeling like I was staring into space or an out of body experience (something like that), I had no energy what so ever or a will to do anything more or less just wanted to vegetate on the chair. After the nightmares stopped the sense of dissyness or loss of balance happened and then the shortness of breath (but no one would listen) and then I could feel my heart racing just walking up stairs or walking more than 100 yards.
 
Well, week two (or three, can't remember) of Vimpat. I think it's week three. Anyways, I'm completely weaned off of Keppra, and am down to 400 mg of Lamictal. I upped the dose slower than the neurologist gave me, so I'm not feeling nauseous. Though I AM feeling nauseous today, and in the past week have definetely seen an increase in seizure activity, but that could be due to several factors. For two weeks I didn't get much sleep - I went across the country to see my family, then didn't sleep much there (jet lag!) then came back, found out I only had a four day week, so I booked a flight to visit a friend for the longer weekend, so I stayed up later to write papers I due that weekend so I didn't have to focus on them that weekend. THEN, when I was on leave I had little sleep.

I had one on my second day of leave, then the next day I had one partial that was short, then an hour or so later, I had another deja vu followed by a long period of the pit in stomach/nauseous feeling which became pretty intense... That went on for about 45 minutes. I was SO afraid I was going to have a seizure that we walked the mile back to the car, and I had to stop a few times. I was also stressed out by my boyfriend (who was there). Actually, that partial started RIGHT after it was brought up. Anyway, today and yesterday I've had partials - it's been awhile since I've had so many consecutive partial seizures, especially long ones like two days in a week (I felt the deja vu this morning followed by the pit in stomach feeling - thankfully it didn't last long enough for me to be afraid). I think it's a combo of things, so it probably isn't just the medication, but this change in meds has been hard :( Though my neurologist did mention that I might have an increase while my body adjusts.

Anyway... I don't know! I'm also a bit frustrated with this increase. But still no loss of consciousness in over a year. Thankfully.
 
I'm now up to 150 mg twice per day, and side effects have been limited to about an hour of feeling on the verge of double vision starting about 45 min after I take the morning dose. After that everything is fine.
I did have to cut back on the tegretol a couple of months ago because of tegretol toxicity: apparently the vimpat and tegretol can have a synergistic effect on one another and the vimpat dose I was on at that point was causing the tegretol to reach toxic levels (I was having symptoms like severe double vision, ataxia, mild confusion, etc.) The vimpat does not appear to be interacting with the keppra in any way, however.
 
I'm also using Vimpat at the moment. mine is just 50mg. I don't have any side effects. I'll guess since you're taking high doses you having one or some of these side effects.



Stop using lacosamide and call your doctor at once if you have:

double vision, hallucinations;


a light-headed feeling, like you might pass out;


fast or pounding heartbeats, fluttering in your chest;


shortness of breath;


fever, skin rash, swollen glands, flu symptoms;


bruising, severe tingling, numbness, pain, muscle weakness;


nausea, upper stomach pain, itching, loss of appetite, dark urine, clay-colored stools, jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes); or


lower back pain, cloudy or bloody urine, swelling, rapid weight gain, urinating less than usual.


Common side effects may include:
mild dizziness;


loss of balance or coordination;


headache; or


mild skin rash.


This is not a complete list of side effects and others may occur. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects.
 
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I can say that I have been lucky. Vimpat has never given me a problem. However, if you are feeling all these side effects, it is usually a sign that one of your meds is to high. Have you had blood work done recently? I forgot that I already took my meds the other night and double dosed by accident. I had to crawl around the house because I couldn't walk. Are you also on Dilantin? -Jeff
 
I'm just on Lamictal now. Most of the those side effects have started to go away. However, this morning I found a patch of hair... like... gone. It freaked me out. I didn't have it on Lamictal - I was losing a little hair like that at first, but not this. I hate these medications :(
 
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