Seizures and Sudafed PE

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bdhshakes

bdhshakes

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Hey everyone,

I was curious if anyone else has had a bad experience with Sudafed PE (Pressure+Pain+Cold) and increased seizure activity? I'll detail what happened to me.

I've had a bit of a cold lately which is uncommon for me as I hardly ever get sick. To try and battle to so I wouldn't have to miss work. Grabbed a bunch of cough drops, some saline spray to clear out my nose, and some Sudafed to help with cold systems. Everything was going according to plan, managing the cold and handling work. I had been taking the Sudafed for a little over 24 hours and while at work I started feeling some of the typical side effects I get from my seizure medications (vertigo, double vision, dizziness). This is fairly uncommon for me though. I haven't had side effects for a year!

I continued to work and just tried to deal with it. My dad works nearby and since I had moved out on my own about two months ago he drops by to say Hi here and there. As he came in he noticed my side effects but also commented I was apparently having seizures back to back (simple partial) and they would not stop. They progressively got worse as I slowly starting losing consciousness here and there. I did not have my VNS magnet with me (doh) so we were unable to do that. Between my dad and my supervisor they decided to call 911 and they shuffled me off to the hospital.

Once I woke up in the ER and they tried to figure out the situation I had told them about the Sudafed and the doctor there told me that it apparently lowers your seizure threshold! And the box has no warning on it regarding seizures at all which afterwards I was rather upset about.

There is a chance I took two of the sudafeds too close together but only by about 30 minutes. So it may have a overdose issue as well but I doubt that would be it.

To repeat my question; have any of you had a similar reaction to Sudafed? Is this a known issue with Sudafed and I was just unaware of it?

(sorry for the somewhat wall of text :pop:)

Brody
 
bdhshakes said:
Hey everyone,

I was curious if anyone else has had a bad experience with Sudafed PE (Pressure+Pain+Cold) and increased seizure activity? I'll detail what happened to me.

I've had a bit of a cold lately which is uncommon for me as I hardly ever get sick. To try and battle to so I wouldn't have to miss work. Grabbed a bunch of cough drops, some saline spray to clear out my nose, and some Sudafed to help with cold systems. Everything was going according to plan, managing the cold and handling work. I had been taking the Sudafed for a little over 24 hours and while at work I started feeling some of the typical side effects I get from my seizure medications (vertigo, double vision, dizziness). This is fairly uncommon for me though. I haven't had side effects for a year!

I continued to work and just tried to deal with it. My dad works nearby and since I had moved out on my own about two months ago he drops by to say Hi here and there. As he came in he noticed my side effects but also commented I was apparently having seizures back to back (simple partial) and they would not stop. They progressively got worse as I slowly starting losing consciousness here and there. I did not have my VNS magnet with me (doh) so we were unable to do that. Between my dad and my supervisor they decided to call 911 and they shuffled me off to the hospital.

Once I woke up in the ER and they tried to figure out the situation I had told them about the Sudafed and the doctor there told me that it apparently lowers your seizure threshold! And the box has no warning on it regarding seizures at all which afterwards I was rather upset about.

There is a chance I took two of the sudafeds too close together but only by about 30 minutes. So it may have a overdose issue as well but I doubt that would be it.

To repeat my question; have any of you had a similar reaction to Sudafed? Is this a known issue with Sudafed and I was just unaware of it?

(sorry for the somewhat wall of text :pop:)

Brody
Click to expand...

I accidentally took a double dose of Bronkaid and had the worst PSs , one lasted 45 minutes straight before I finally took enough klonipin to fall asleep. It stayed a PS as I talked to my husband through the entire thing until I feel asleep and was able to document the entire thing on my laptop until I feel asleep.
 
 
I was warned straight up not to take cold and flu tablets containing pseudoephedrine (the active ingredient) at all by my neuro. Pseudoephedrine acts like an amphetamine, and speeding up the brain is not good at all when it's already misfiring.
 
It can definitely mess with your seizures, but it depends on the individual as some react to it more than others (like everything!).

I avoid it, and if I have a cold try to just deal with it. And if I absolutely have to , I'll take some thing like Mucinex.
 
Chicken soup is the best cold remedy. No drug interactions to worry about and it's tasty.
 
I had a very bad cold last week and I was taking a store brand medicine, not sure what name brand it was. I felt like crap, worse than I did when I wasn't taking it. I was sleeping all the time (it was a non-drowsy med) and I was getting double vision. I stopped taking it and started feeling much better, wasn't sleeping all the time and the double vision stopped. Still had the cold and but it was much better to deal with it than those things.
 
A pinch of Cayenne pepper in a cup of coffee or in hot chocolate is good too.
 
The native Hawaiian traditional remedy is lemongrass tea with a pinch of turmeric added.
 
It's interesting to hear this.

Every time I take pseudoephedrine HCI (generic Sudafed) I get these "chills"/tingling that radiate from my hand to my toes to the side of my face and I get visible goosebumps on only ONE side of my body.

I asked my Neurologist about this and it possibly being seizure activity, but she didn't say anything and didn't seem concerned. I dismissed it as a regular med side affect and still take pseudoephedrine HCI for colds to this day... but now I'm rethinking that.
 
Just a follow up, the medicine I have been using if I am really congested is Zyrtec, which contains cetirizine HCL, not mucinex.

I've read that you should be careful taking Zyrtec with sedating medications (like AEDs), but I havent heard too much about it reducing seizure threshold. I asked a pharmacist and he said it was okay to take. (but, who knows, right?)
 
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