Lamictal & Memory

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

B

benw

New
Messages
22
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Hello,

Let me start by describing my e-story: I had one seizure 4 years ago, and then nothing until about a year ago when I had another one, got diagnosed and started taking Lamictal. After the third seizure my neurologist told me to increase the dose by 50mg\d every time I have a seizure up to 400mg\d. I'm at 300mg right now (started at 200) and been seizure free for 4 months now which is my longest. Up until the last increase I've had a seizure every 3 months. (I know that the dose increases don't add up but it's a long story)
About 2 months after I got the first seizure, which is about a year ago, I moved to Italy in order to go to medschool.
This is my first exam session, and when I began studying for it I realized that I can't remember a thing. I've been preparing for this chemistry exam - granted, it's a heavy one - for about 2 months now and I am nowhere ready for it. I'm starting to feel like a complete idiot, studying 10 hours a day and can't remember a thing. I've tried every method I could think of: writing, reading, listening, talking, drawing schemes, walking around while talking to myself (thank god I live alone) and nothing sticks.. I studied 2 small subjects yesterday, just 2 measly exam questions, and right now I don't think I could write a decent answer about either of them. Not to talk about what I studied 3-4 days ago which I can't recall at all.
At school I felt like I had a good memory, my record was studying a vocabulary of about 150 words in Latin in one night for a final exam I had the next day in which I got about 90%. I basically never studied at school, just went to the classes and it was enough.
Now I feel like information is just passing in front of me and nothing sticks. I've never been good with names but it took me about 3 months to figure out the names of the 4 people I sit next to in every class!! When I read a book I have a hard time remembering where I stopped the day before and can't explain the story properly, even if it fascinates me.
I have a bit of ADD and I used to take Ritalin until the seizure which I felt did me some good (I started it after I got out of school).

I'm getting pretty desperate here, I was planning on taking 3 exams and it looks like I'm going to end up with just one which was practically all true or false questions so much easier than the rest.

Could Lamictal cause this?

Thanks for the help!

Ben
 
Hi benw --

I've been on Lamictal for almost 5 years now, and it hasn't affected my memory. But I'm on a lower dose than you (150mg/day), plus these meds tend to affect everyone differently. Many people do report cognitive side effects with Lamictal, and that may be the case for you.

Another factor might be the seizures -- sometimes they can damage the areas of the brain responsible for encoding and recalling memories. This may be less likely in your case, since the number of seizures you've had is relatively low.

You should talk to your neurologist about the side effects you're experiencing, and ask about options for either reducing the dose or trying a different medication.

And ask about scheduling a neuropsychiatric evaluation to test your cognitive and memory function. It's a good way to take a snapshot of how you're doing now, and gives you a baseline to measure any future changes against. The session consists of a series of tests, and lasts a few hours. The neuropsychiatrist will use the results to help diagnose the cause of any issues, identify the areas of the brain that may be responsible, and suggest changes or techniques to address any problems.
 
Hi,

I didn't know about the neuropsychiatric evaluation, I guess I'll try to fix an appointment. Seems like something I should be doing in my mother's tongue but I'm only going to be home for 10 days :(

It's just an awful feeling. I tend to ignore things until they club me in the face and last night it did, that something's not normal. At the same time I'm afraid that it's just an escape from not managing to handle the studies but I have spent so much time on them that it makes no sense not to be able to respond to a question I studied 2 days ago. And now I feel like I'm sure I'll fail so I can't bare reading this stuff for the 5th time just to forget it tomorrow.. Needless to say I didn't picture my first exam session to go like this..

At least I have my supportive mom who said she's going to flip the sky if she has to in order to get a neurologist appointment (she insists on two different ones known for different approaches) :)

Thanks for the response
 
Good luck, hope the exam goes better than expected.
 
i know what you mean. i used to be very active in school, had alot of friends. now i have people walk up "Omg! hi kayla" and i have to either a. ask who they are or b. fake it till they say something that triggers a memory of them. if that happens. some of my close friends talk about things we used to do that you would think i remember. nope!! i hate it! it is really embarrassing. id love to go back to school but lack of memory, it would be a waste of time & money.
 
Hey Kayla,

You shouldn't give up, it's difficult but it's doable.
Have you checked your vitamin levels? I had a pretty big deficiency on B12 and D3. B12 can explain pretty much every symptom you could imagine, and D3 can explain muscle weakness and tired feeling, so it's worth a check.
Other than that, they upped my dose to 350mg a day, and gave me some Ritalin to see if it'll make things better. I've always been a bit ADHD so it seems like a place to start.
Unfortunately I made a mess with the Lamictal dose, they changed the boxes and I ended up taking way too much, so I've decided not to take the Ritalin until I finish lowering the dose back to normal (doing it over a month), so I'll know whether the Ritalin works in a few weeks.

And most importantly, don't give up, it's the worst thing you could possibly do. You gotta find those tricks that make things easier, always try to make connections, especially with people, no matter how ridiculous it feels. Same goes for the studies, always try to anchor anything new you need to learn on things you already know. I think it sets things in place on the long run as well. I did a huge work on mnemonics for this test, and I'm surprised that I remember some very complicated things because I made some very ridiculous connections (I'd say that the sentence Can I Keep Selling Sex For Money Officer as an acronym for the citric acid cycle, a very annoying chain reaction, takes the cookie).
If you want to go back to school, by all means, do it. It might be difficult, it might take some adjusting, believe me, I'm going through it right now, but don't let it beat you.
 
yeah. i have been working on the not giving up thing. actually i have been trying to get my self out of the hole i have dug lol. i have started talking to some old friends. i love it when they tell me about how much fun we used to have. sounds weird i know. but its better when they tell me. i would rather they tell me then having few memories.
i laughed so hard at sex for money thing. i went to a vocational school for landscaping.its really weird that i can remember some of the scientific names of things and could point them out in any field. but to tell you the common name, unless someone told me alot of times i cant for the life of me remember it.
 
benw said:
Hello,

Could Lamictal cause this?

Thanks for the help!

Ben
Click to expand...

Hi Ben,

Not sure how much it helps but I can relate.. my memory has turned to mush since I've been on Lamictal. I was going to do my Masters but I can't now as I can't remember anything..

I was on my 10th year of tegretol during university and that affected my marks for sure. I went off of that and on to Lamictal on my last year, and I could just feel the clarity. My grades went up a whole grade point. Now it's 10 years later and I feel just like I did on the tegretol.

So side effects are different for everyone, but Lamictal has definitely affected my memory. kind of sucks.
 
Really frustrating to know that what's making you better is also making you worse
 
it is i would rather forget that my shoes dont match and i forgot to flat iron my hair on one side (i just pretend im cool). then to chew my tongue till i cant talk and wind up with another 12 stitches.
 
:( That does sound awful. The worst I got is a really nasty cut on my arm, and the idiot ER doctors didn't think it important enough to clean it up, so I ended up with a very big infection and now a really nasty scar. I'm taking it as an excuse to get another tattoo as a cover up, now all I need is an idea, this way it might pass as cool

How many seizures are you having? are you in good contact with your neurologist?

*maybe it's a good idea to open a new thread :)
 
lol i didnt mean to make it sound super serious!! i just meant that i would rather be forgetful then a mess like that. sorry
 
no worries, I don't know you, and your situation enough not to take you seriously :)
 
Go to Epilepsy Forums (bar on top) -- The Foyer (if you want to introduce yourself, otherwise choose any forum that fits you) -- On the left, above the list of threads you have "new topic" button
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom