Here is what I found in 30 mins here....
Here is what I found in 30 mins here....
INFO FROM HERE...
KEPPRA
If the dr completes the Rx as "fill as prescribe", they have to use brand name. My dr's office has not used that option previously as there was no generic, but now they are changing their procedures on prescriptions.
My understanding that without insurance,
Keppra is between $250 - $300 for 30 days of pills. Ouch!
My current prescription of Keppra is just under $700 for a 30 day supply and my Lamictal is about $300 without insurance coverage! I found that out when my husband changed jobs and we were without insurance for a month...Ouch! I did the math once, and the Keppra cost me approximately $4 per tablet and the Lamictal about $5 per tablet that month. With the insurance, my co-pay for brand name is $50 each drug; the generic is $25 each drug, but if I wanted (or my doc ordered) me to take the brand name now that the generics are available I would have to pay the difference between the cost and my co-pay for the generic. (for keppra, it would be about $675)
I use generic keppra (on assistance and never been able to afford brand names), and it's worked well for me (the first 3-5 weeks, though I was really sleepy, and would have screaming rage about dumb things like dropping lunch meat on the ground or being late for an appointment that lasted only 30-90 seconds). However, my seizures are not severe, so I'm probably not sensitive to minute variations.
I did have preoccupation about death and dying, sort of an existential depression (not again!) But I was able to use the thoughts to develop a more productive philosophy about life to enrich each moment, but I can see how at a different time or for different circumstances it could've become suicidal depression, so that's something to watch and report to doctors, especially if you have a history of mood disorders.
ETA: also, I'm prescribed folic acid, which apparently helps.
Hello,
If you've been having these thoughts, it can indeed be due only to the current stressful issues in your life.. but it's likely keppra can be influencing how you're handling these situations. I would talk to your neurologist or doctor as soon as you get the chance.
I was in a very similar situation only a month ago - I've been recently diagnosed with epilepsy and was taking keppra (1500 bid) along with Clobazam to help me sleep. But I had noticed, and other people as well, that my mood wasn't normal, and I was having massive swings in my mood. I switched about a month ago to Valproic Acid, which has so far been a great alternative. I think it's too early yet to tell if this medication will prove more effective and lighter on my mood, but I can tell you from experience that the keppra certainly had very negative effects on my mood when I took it. I've been working through a lot of academic stress, and with valproic acid it's been a lot easier to handle. Keppra, stresses in my life were blown way out of proportion than they needed to be, from what I found. I started seeing a psychologist but I now find it unneccessary.
FROM C GIRL COLORADO 2012
Changing to generic Keppra XR really screwed me up!! Especially at first, it's better now, but I still have little panic attacks over nothing and I was never like that on brand name Keppra XR.
I'm going to expand on what I said earlier and give you my history with name brand vs generic, and this is long.
I started Keppra about 7 years ago after bad side effects from lamictal, tegretol, neurontin, depakote, and a few others I can't even remember now. But I had tried a lot, got pregnant by accident while on hormone birth control and was told that depakote and lamictal would make my baby be born with horrible congenital birth defects so had an abortion, then said screw this and dropped all meds for a few years. Had lots of seizures and finally had a horrible day with many grand mals (as well as the partials distracting me all day long) and decided to get back on meds. So I started Keppra under my neurologist's direction because if I got pregnant accidentally again I would know it was safer than those meds. The first few weeks were tough with tiredness and all day head fog and a difficult time waking up - it seemed like I was comatose. But I got over it, and life was so much better! I had to keep upping the dose and finally at 2000mg I was stable again. I found that I have had some rage at times but overall it made me a normal person again. Generic Keppra came on the market and I was forced to take it due to the insurance copay BS I have to deal with making it more pricey and the difference was amazing. All of a sudden I had horrible headaches every single day and I stuttered!!! What I was thinking is not what came out of my mouth, and what I tried to say was interrupted by uh uh uh and t.t.t.t... I just couldn't spit it out. After one month I called my neurologist and he told me that Keppra XR had come out on the market so I made the switch, because that could be covered at the copay price since no generics were available. The only problem I had was that my neurologist prescribed me to take it in the morning and the all day fog returned, so once I took it before bed and slept off the worst of the tiredness I was fine. Hello normal self again! I got pregnant by accident (again, but on barrier birth control) but had a perfectly healthy pregnancy, labor, delivery, and baby, and breastfed him for 15+ months with absolutely no problems. I had to take a lot of folic acid with him and still take 800mcg but life was great. Fast forward to last September. Levetiracetam ER hits the market, my brand name medically necessary prescription doesn't matter anymore and I am forced to take the generic or pay a dispensed as written penalty, so my price goes from $25 for 3 months of meds to $465.81 for 3 months. Figured I'd give the generic a chance. First brand, Actavis, made me break out in hives and get super edgy and freak out over stuff. Anxiety over nothing. I filed an appeal with my insurance company to receive the name brand at copay price since I was having side effects and it was denied. So I decided to pay for the brand name for Keppra XR but only had $155.27 to spend on one month so just did that and decided to try Watson Labs brand the next month. So, I did, and this time no hives. But, the very first night I started having seizures again, the anxiety was amplified by 1000x, I was having full blown panic attacks, my face started to break out like a teenager, fat tongue feeling, couldn't talk right, tingling and numbness in my hands and feet, inability to straighten out my hands and use them correctly, extreme exhaustion (like someone had sucked the life out of me), and migraines again. So, I had a bunch of blood work done to figure out if something else is causing this and everything looks good. My neurologist upped the dose to 2500mg to get the seizures under control. I filed another appeal with insurance, and an external review was denied. They have granted me 4 months of the name brand but only that and in the meantime, no one can tell me anything about the second appeal, if it's been approved, denied, etc. It's like it never happened and they skipped right over that to this external review that was denied. Anyway, in the midst of the worst of the symptoms, I became pregnant accidentally again. I say accidentally because these have all happened while on birth control and through different types of BC. We had many many fears about the baby and at a 9 week appointment discovered that it had died but I had not miscarried yet. I have no idea if the generics caused it ... people say it should not have... but for how messed up I've been, how can I ever be sure? Anyway, after the miscarriage, I decided that I'm not taking the generics anymore. I want to have a healthy baby now and on purpose. So, I have weaned myself down from 2500mg to 2000mg to 1500mg to 750mg and now 500mg. I figure if my insurance will give me 4 months of a 2000mg daily dose, I can make it last 16 months - long enough to get healthy enough to get pregnant again and have a healthy pregnancy. I really hope the 500mg controls the seizures. So far I haven't had any problems and actually feel really good again, which is surprising considering I had a miscarriage one week ago tomorrow morning. Of course the fear remains with having a seizure while pregnant, but... I don't know what to do since even with my insurance I can't afford my meds and it seems like the appeals are all going to be denied.
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Ive never tried the Generic of Keppra, Ive only been on name brand seizure medications all my life. But I have tried lamotrigine AKA Lamictal. I tried that in April of last year and had a really bad experience. It changed my mood, making me feel really depressed, and I also had an allergic reaction to it. I had to get off of it. Since then, Ive been on Keppra XR 3000mgs a day. I also take a Vitamin B-12, and Vitamin B Complex each morning. For me, ive had no problems with the Keppra for the past 13 years.
G Girl, Im so sorry you're going through all this crap with the insurance! Is crap like that, that just pisses me off! So far, ive been lucky enough to get the insurance to pay for brand name, as long as my dr doesnt approve the generics. My neurologist is pretty good at letting me make those kind of choices. Once I was put back on the Keppra XR after my first video EEG in march of last year, they let me decided it I would like to try the generic of Keppra XR. After thinking about it, I chose to stay with the name brand, because first off, Ive never tried a generic seizure medication before, and Ive known for years that the name brand Keppra has worked, so I didnt want to screw up and take the chance of the generic not working. But when my dr tried to wean me off of keppra in April of 2011, he had to put me back to the Keppra, and not the Keppra XR. I went from 3000mgs a day down to 2500mgs a day, and suffered from really bad headaches and tingling and numbness feelings in my hands and feet. My dr didnt think nothing was up, at least that It was seizure related. But when the end of May came around, I got to see the dr's assistant and told her about it. I was determined to make this stuff go away! I brought it up, and asked if he was planning on leaving me on the Keppra, (In april his plan was to put me on Lamictal, and wean me off of Keppra, but I had an allergic reaction with the lamictal, and once I was told I was having the allergic reaction, I was down to 2500mgs of the Keppra, the dr thought the 2500mgs a day would hold me over, so he left me there, despite having the tingling feelings in my hands and feet, and headaches) if they could switch me to the Keppra XR and back to 3000mgs? She asked the dr himself, he said sure. Within less than a week, all those symptoms went totally away! I told my mom I knew that stuff wasnt all in my head! My mom then started to see where i was coming from, and she really thought it was in my head too, but after seeing the change in what took place, just going to Keppra XR from Keppra and bumping the dose up 500mgs more a day, it changed me for good!
SIDE EFFECTS: Common side effects associated with levetiracetam include headache, sleepiness, weakness, dizziness, and infection. Difficulty walking or moving, hostility, irritability, mood swings, anxiety, hallucinations, and delusions also have been associated with levetiracetam. A small number of patients may experience a decrease in red or white blood cell counts. Like other antiseizure medications, levetiracetam should not be discontinued suddenly because of the risk of increased seizure activity.
Has anyone experienced the Keppra Rage?
I have been on Keppra for almost 11 years now and during that time I was also on Carbatrol. I was taken off the Carbatrol March 7th and since then Ive been experiencing alot of different emotions.
Anger, sadness, feeling of just not caring, no desire to even want to get up out of bed, crying spells, you name it, I have it!
Today was the worst! I felt like not even wanting to spend another day of dealing with this again!
I had to contact my dr, which he told me he thinks its Keppra Rage. He thinks that since my body was so use to the Carbatrol, that the carbatrol was like a sedative and helped with the irritability, and moods. Now that Im no longer on the Carbatrol, the emotions are getting worse!
I am 125 lbs and am on 2000 mg of Keppra 2x/day. I do have rage issues that appear to be connected to Keppra.
I take 1000 mg of time released B12 in the morning along with 100 mg of B6 (not time released). This gets me through the work day. If I felt like I needed it, I would take another 100 mg dose of B6 in the afternoon, but that is my time to chill out. I feel it makes a big difference in my mood.
I understand the Keppra Rage thing completely and not wanting to be with someone cause you always feel like your treating them like shit. Some times I don't even mean too but I just can't help it you know. fecking sucks. I also take Keppra I may not have mentioned that. And your right not everyone is a jerk. I still talk to the one guy I dated years ago and were friends now I think. I just wish we could have normal relationships without the extra baggage I guess. =(
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Keppra makes me, and a lot of others, very irritable and angry. We call it keprage.
One thing with meds is it may be helping control your seizures but the side effects are just too much to handle and you need to stop taking it, which sounds like is what's going on here. I've had to stop taking different meds several times because I couldn't deal with the side effects.
I'd deffently call your neurologist tomorrow and tell him about the problems. You'll have to be weaned off of it. You can't just do it cold turkey because that can be very unsafe.
I had dizziness and would stumble quite a bit when I first started Keppra. It was weirdest in the night and morning. I also noticed that my seizures changed. Once my body adjusted I stopped stumbling and feeling dizzy. The only thing I'm noticing is that PMS essentially renders the drug useless for me. I'll be great and then the PMS comes and the seizures are back. I don't think that part will be an issue for you, though.
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