Medication

[momofthree]

Hi everyone, it is has been a while since I have been on the forum, I am happy to say things had been going really well for a while. We had put my son on Abilify in addition to his Keppra and it really changed our lives, he was happier and just more confident, it has been a game changer for us. We are about 2.5 months into the Abilify and he is now having seizures again, he had not had any between June and December, then in December he had a grand mal and then in May in had three more seizures in a one week period. We have raised his meds greatly but nearing the max dose of Keppra and he is now having sleep side effects and I think some mood issues once again. I know the doctor is going to want to change meds if mood becomes an issue and I am nervous wreck about it. Is any one giving Lamactal to their kids? From what I read about it it can help with mood swings as well so maybe a good choice for us but would love some practical feedback about this medication! Thanks in advance.

 

[Cint]

Abilify is an anti-psychotic drug, also used for bi-polar and as an anti-depressant. It is also related to Zyprexa, a drug I took, which caused my diabetes, so DO be aware that it can cause diabetes. Let the dr. know if your son starts losing weight/is thirsty all the time more than usual as this can be a symptom of diabetes. It can also make seizures worse.

Keppra can make moods worse. Can your son be taken completely off Keppra and slowly start Lamictal? Topomax, Trileptal, Tegretol and Depakote are a few others that are also used as mood stabilizers.

 

[Staceypt]

My son is 8 and is on Keppra and Lamictal. We tried just Keppra, didn't work. Added Trileptal and for us it was horrible - tons more seizures, c/o headaches. We weaned him off of that and added the Lamictal instead. For us it has been great - no side effects, good mood. Maybe a little tired here and there, but nothing to complain of. And it is working -- he was having probably 40-50 seizures a day (at least) and now I have seen just 2 in the past week. And we are not at the full dosage that she wants us at yet.

We noticed moodiness big time with the Keppra until we added B6 vitamins and they have been helpful. Our neuro told us that Lamictal is a mood stabilizer and so far it has been fine.

Good luck!

 

[Staceypt]

Also - I forgot to mention a couple things

I think (and could be wrong) that Lamictal is usually used in conjunction with another med (like Keppra) and not usually as a monotherapy. Also - we are using the chewable ones and they are great - super tiny, so it is not a big deal for him to take them. They also have meltaway type ones as well.

My only complaint - and it is a little one -- is how slowly you need to move with the Lamictal. Like all meds you need to slowly increase your dose, but it seems a lot longer for the Lamictal than the other meds he has been on. Other than that we are super happy with it. Just frustrating b/c we see it starting to work but we have to take our time with the dosing - our doc said if not he could get a really bad rash and we'd have to reconsider the med.

 

[Nakamova]

I think (and could be wrong) that Lamictal is usually used in conjunction with another med (like Keppra) and not usually as a monotherapy.

I believe Lamictal was initially introduced to the market as an adjunctive med -- for safety reasons. (Drug companies have to test and market anti-seizure meds as add-ons since they can't ask a patient to just swap out one med for another.) For many years now, however, Lamictal has been successfully used for monotherapy.

 

[seanwalker]

thanks for the information

 

[LisaBee]

Keppra never worked for us for seizure control and made our daughter an angry emotional mess. We take Trileptal and it is a mood stabilizer as well. Seizure free for almost 20 months!

 

[Belinda5000]

momofthree

there are many AEDs out there and sometime it can take more than just one try to get control.All drugs have sideeffectsmine just went awayafter so long and I take Tegretol,TopamaxPhenobarb.

 

[Kgartner]

We took my daughter off of Keppra in April. It worked great at preventing seizures, but made her an emotional and psychological mess. We had considered switching her to Lamictal at that time, but for a variety of reasons her neurologist recommended actually taking her completely off of medication at that time to see what would happen.

All of the emotional issues cleared up off of the Keppra, but 2 weeks ago after 7 weeks with no medication she had another seizure. Her neurologist did not want to wait for the long titration of Lamictal, so we have put her on Trileptal. Aside from some pretty bad tiredness at first, she seems to be doing quite well on it.

So you have quite a few good options! If your son is reacting badly to Keppra, I highly recommend switching off of it. We didn't realize how much it was affecting my daughter until we got her "back" off the meds.