I don't hear very many good reports about keppra with regard to it's side effects. I do hear many complaints about mood swings, aggression, cognition and memory problems, etc.. However, I have read a few comments saying it can actually HELP with mood swings and bipolar disorder (which she doesn't have). Please comment on this. My daughter has just begun this medication for seizure disorder. She has had seizures several years apart from each other.
There have been reports of effective seizure control from patients following up monthly. They are using Levetiracetam (Keppra) as an adjuvant to another first line anti-epileptic medication. Most of them are suffering from partial seizures. And the first line drug is mostly Tegretol. Only a few patients have complained about mood swings so far. All had predominantly depressed mood, but not to the extent of being called depressive disorder. This must be about 10% of the patients.
As my DD is in Keppra, and has previously been on other seizure meds, the Keppra, by far has had the least amount of side-effects. You could ask if some of her mood changes, memory loss, etc. are from the stroke vs. the Keppra. Please do not wean her off the medication without a Dr's directive... that could cause withdrawal seizures.
My thoughts are with you that your mother gets well soon.
04/12 changed him to Dilatan and keppra more seizures. 05/12 put back on keppra only 3,500 mg. 06/12 seizures moved to keppra 4,000 mg a day! He has had only 1 seizures since been on 4,000, but this is a very high dosage. He is going to see an seizures specialist. Hoping he can get this dosage down.
The only times the seizures would happen was when I woke up suddenly, in the morning. The medication I was given is levitiractam (keppra) 500mg twice a day, which i have been taking for about two years, My questions are:
how does keppra help against seizures?
What does it mean to suddenly be diagnosed with seizures?(even though the MRI and EGG and other tests show normal)
Sometimes when i am walking to school i feel dizzy even though i take my medication. Why is that?
The vet did blood work and diagnosed him with idiopathic epilepsy. She put him on 500 mg of keppra ER twice a day. He had a seizure every two weeks for the next month. When we went back to the vet she put him on 64.8 mg twice a day phenobarbital as well as adding another 500 mg keppra to what he was taking. He has been very drowsy and started stumbling and falling into walls. He is also dragging his back feet like he's not picking up his feet. I'm very worried about my baby.
Also, I wanted to know if anyone has tried Keppra for seizure activity in dogs and if so, how did that work? Our 6 year old French Mastiff had a seizure on Thursday night - first one ever. He walked across our bedroom floor, stood in front of our open door and acted like he saw someone in the hallway. I sat up and said "Archie, there is no-one there. Go back to bed." Then he looked like he was rubbing his shoulder on the clothes hamper and I thought it looked really weird.
We will hesitate extremely before putting her back on medication, the effects of the Keppra were worse than the smaller little seizures she had. But if we are forced to go with medicine, what is the best for a child like this? Should we wait to see if the seizures start up again before deciding on medicine?
He was placed on Keppra 500mg orally twice a day for seizure precautions due to the fall. He has been on the medication for approximately three weeks. He is tired, blah, and feels short of breath. I know it will take time to heal but do you know how long he should have to be on the medication and/or how long he will feel this way? I'm not sure how much activity to encourage. If you have any information or advice to ask the neurologist, I would greatly appreciate it!!
My daughter has gran mal seizures, and takes 750 mg twice a day (1500 mg daily) and has been seizure free for 18 months. Keppra has worked well for her..key to her success is consistent timing of medication in morning and evening.
If you are concerned about the dosage of Keppra, your Neuro could request bloodwork for liver/kidney function tests. My DD processes her dosage quickly, and still has normal liver/kidney function.
The same thing is happening to our 13yo. He was weaned off Keppra after two years and had a breakthrough seizure. Then he was put onto another anti seizure medication and had a severe allergic reaction to it. He has been on Keppra again exclusively for the past 8 months. His behavior is hard to describe. Before Keppra he was a happy, fun-loving, calm kid. Now he can only be described as disrespectful, disobedient, argumentative, rude and sometimes enraged. Hence ‘Keppra rage.
Kylie,I would definitely take the seizure medication while you were tapering off the tramadol.One of the tricky parts is coming off of the medicine is that if you come off too fast you have to worry about seizures if you continue to take it now you have to worry about seizures. So take the anti-seizure meds slowly taper yourself down. Is there anyway you could go to NA I think it’s really important that you have a strong support group.
My Son having seizures When he was 7 months old in August 1st 2014 eye rolling moving to left. We went to A&E we stayed 2 weeks However all tests came back showing nothing brain Scan MRI and EEG All normal, Sometimes head turns to left too when it's strong. His seizures Always to left.Eye rolling moving to left continued but we were able to control them without medication, We were doing a mixture of Chinese medicine & acupuncture and homeopathy.
Then took her Keppra down to 1/day for 2 weeks. Then she went one day with no Keppra and the next day she had a seizure. This seizure was longer, but her disorientation was shorter. Vet then said to go back to giving her Keppra for 30 days and we will re-evaluate. So for the next 30 days she was taking Keppra 1/day and Di Tan Tang 2/day.
After the 30 days, I stopped the Keppra and just continued the Di Tan Tang 2/day. This lasted for 114 days.
In response to this seizure, my doctor placed me on Keppra. I hated it so much that I stopped taking it after only a few days. It made me incredibly tired and moody. I work in medicine and I cringe every time someone tells me they stopped a medication without their doctor's knowledge. That should give you an idea how much I didn't like Keppra. Lamictal, on the other hand, has been wonderful.
After having those 2 he went on Keppra. A very low dose, 250mg twice a day. For 2 months he was seizure free and we had forgotten about it all(other then to give his pills twice a day).
So, then our vet recommended us weaning him off Keppra. She believed his seizures may of been triggered from him being on trifexis flea pills - he has always been using. Within a week to week and half we gave him the lowest dosage of Keppra - 125mg for the entire day. That day, he had 4 seizures!
Hi, First time poster on this forum. Hopefully someone can help!
Basically I'm suffering from Seizures and they're becoming more frequent. I am on 1,000mg of Keppra twice a day 12 hours apart (Morning & Night)
I have lost count of how many I have had but my first one was around 4 years ago now and was believed to be cause by severe dehydration working physically in 40-45+c Degree heat with not enough fluids to drink.
I had a seizure in my sleep Thursday night. I was perscribed 500mg Keppra twice daily.
I took my first pill at 1:30 and felt high all night. I finally went to bed at 8pm without taking another and slept until 9:30am!!! I have a 2 year old. I have no idea how long she was awake and waiting for me.
I am afraid to take another dose. I can't sleep like that. Is this a side effect of the medicine? Or still fatigue from actually having a seizure?
This past Thanksgiving, he had a total of 5 seizures over 24 hours necessitating a hospital visit and stay. They put him on a third seizure medication (Lamotrigine). I spoke with a neurologist at USF who didn't like that a 3rd medication was added before his previous two were maxed out--he was already on Keppra (max dosage) and Depakote (sprinkles--very low dose), so she titrated him up on the Depakote so we could get rid of the Lamotrigine. Well, that worked.
He said she had a 70% chance of having another seizure in the next 3 years and suggested we put her on Keppra. (He previously ordered the MRI because he thought that her earlier seizures, which both lasted less than a minute and were about 18 months apart, may have caused hippocamal sclerosis). When we asked if she had epilepsy, he said no that she has "epileptic tendencies.
The phenobarbital is a very widely used anti-seizure medication. It is highly metabolized by the liver and over time, cause liver enzymes to rise. Keppra (levetiracetam) is mostly excreted by the kidneys are is one of the safest drugs speaking in terms of therapeutic vs. toxic blood concentrations. Other drugs include zonisamide, potassium bromide, etc. A large percentage of dogs respond to one anti-seizure medication. For some, one is not enough and they need 2, 3, or 4 others!
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