meds question - lamictal & topamax

[rhiannon]

hi all!

I'm new to the forum and have a meds question.

my story - diagnosed at 12 (now 34), partial, now 99% nocturnal. have been on 300mg lamictal & 200mg epilim for about 10yrs which worked for some time but I'm still having many seizures and have finally accepted that I need to change meds. I've been reluctant - fear of the unknown I suppose, not knowing what may happen as I find the right meds at the right dosage.

I'll be dropping the epilim and replacing it with 100mg topamax. has anyone taken lamictal & topamax together? I'd also welcome any comments about topamax, as I've never been on it

thanks

 

[arnie]

I take only lamictal, and have for probably 20 years so I can't speak to combinations, but I will tell you of a recent change I made that has seemed to help a lot.
I had been taking 400 mg. a day (200 twice a day) for a long time, and never had very good seizure control. No tonic clonics but hundreds of complex partials a year. When my doc tried to raise me to 500 (250 twice a day) I got extremely sleepy and groggy to the poiunt where it was hard to function. That side effect didn't go away so I never got beyond 400. I tried some other meds but the side-effects were not tolerable. About a month ago I thought of dividing my meds into 4 doses a day instead of 2. Same amount per day, but more frequent, smaller doses. That made a huge difference, and I am now taking 650 a day with no sleepiness and no seizures for a month. You might want to try that. I don't know why my docs never thought of it, and why there is not anything that I could find in the Lamictal information, but it does no harm and can help keep your blood levels more steady. 300 mg is a pretty low dose and is clearly not controlling your seizures. I don't know why docs alwayd want to add more meds before being more creative with the current ones.

 

[Belinda5000]

lamictal I'm not able to take didn't work for me anyway.

topamax I take been taken it probably 10 years. Topamax is one of the few drugs that actually does help control my sz's, and I take 200mgAM and PM. I lost some weight on Topamax after about a year.