Has anyone had a problem with a seizure medicine causing irreversible weight gain? My daughter was a thin child, who took Tegretol for seizures, and gained a large amount of weight in a short time. We stopped the medication, but the weight did not reduce.
As halbashes said, it would be important to avoid anti-epileptic drugs that sometimes have the side-effect of weight loss or loss of appetite. There are others that tend to cause weight gain, though, such as Depakote (which is also used to prevent migraine headaches). A good neurologist should be able to choose the right drug with the right side effect profile. Obviously, weight gain and/or increased appetite would be desirable.
There are even some meds, especially antidepressants, that cause weight loss in some and weight gain in others. I gained weight on most mood stabilizers. The biggest culprits for me were Depakote, Remeron- an antidepressant, and Zyprexa- an antipsychotic.
Now I take Lithobid, which is a slow release lithium. It tends to not cause as many side effects as regular Lithium. I am also on Seroquel. I was finally able to lose all of the weight I gained.
Since October I have tried Lortab (3 strengths), gabapentin, Lyrica, Ultram, Relafen, Zonegran, and Trileptal. I am also on Cymbalta and Ambien. Any ideas/help would be greatly appreciated.
t think of them at this time)
I am now being treated with Zonegran, Depakote. The Zonegran was working for a little while but I have seemed to reach a plateau. I have not been migraine free at all since November, but there have been times where my migraines have been less painful. I work for a health insurance company and I am on the computer for 8 hours a day. I have been unalbe to work a full time scheule for the past 3 months due to my migraines.
I have been seeing a regular neurologist to see if she can treat my migraines and am currently on 150 mg. of Zonisamide every night to try to help that, but I am also working with Dr. Gardner at UPMC, who is a Chiari specialist. He believes it is best to eliminate all other possibilities before actually resorting to surgery to treat the Chiari, which I respect. I go back for a 6 month follow-up MRI and consult with Dr. Gardner next week.
ve had several medications from Topomax to Lyrica with no relief and am currently taking Zonisamide daily (9 weeks) with Naproxin and Imatrex as needed. I graph my headaches daily and average a 5 on a 0 - 10 scale, no changes noted with Zonisamide treatment. No days are 0. I avoid taking any OTC medications and use the Naproxin and Imatrex very sparingly.
An MRI a year ago showed bulging but it was discounted as unimportant by my neurologist.
Hi There. I know what you are going through. My dog (12 year old Beagle) started having seizures in Jun 2014. My dog went through about the same thing your dog is going through. Apparently, my dog is very sensitive to PB. Have tried several dosages on her & she does ok with a very, very low dose but the seizures come back in 2-3 wks. Right now she is taking 1/2 tab in a.m., 1/2 tab in p.m and every other evening she takes 1 full tab (this is 16.2 mg).
I have a 1 year 4 month old German Shepherd named Melo who's been having seizures since he was 1. I just wanted to share my experience because I know its comforting to hear stories of other people that are going through what you're going through, makes you feel less hopeless. Melo had 4 seizures in the span of 2 hours, he's taking 300mg of Zonisamide every 12 hours but before take refill arrived he had ran out and that's when the seizures happened.
t find a workable dosage of phenobartibal, you might want to ask your vet about either Dilantin, Valium, potassium bromide, felbamate, or a different type of anti-seizure medicine that can be used in conjunction with potassium bromide and/or phenobarbital together called Zonisamide. Zonisamide is totally unrelated to any of the other anticonvulsants, but, like Keppra, the full extent of its side effects is not yet known so to some vets, it is somewhat controversial to prescribe it.
The vet did bloodwork and put her on zonisamide 100mg twice a day. She continued having them so vet doubled her dosage to 200 mg twice daily. She continued having them but they were much shorter in duration. So the vet added phenobarbital 1g twice daily in addition to her zonisamide 200mg twice daily. My question is about the side effects. It has been a week since the pheno was added and she is still very clumsy and can't even walk up stairs.
But due to the side effects of that like the weight control issuess, liver, and birth defects it can cause I want to go off but nervous as I have not had a seizure in more then a decade now and hesitant to chance it, just don't like the side effects of depakote!!!!
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