Posted by Bette Powers on March 14, 2002, at 20:52:13
In reply to Topamax for Energy?, posted by Annie Z. on February 12, 2002, at 21:29:36
I have been on Topamax for 5 weeks now.....and have moved up from an initial does of 50mg (25 in morning and 25 in evening) to a daily dose of 150mg. About 4 hours after I take a dose I get a feeling of sleepiness. At first I had to give in to it...it was total exhaustion...but as the dosage increased and more time went by, I can shake it off.....I just make myself do something with my mind....something that takes intellectual
concentration...and it passes....also, the Dr. said I could take the doses when I want so I take 3 tabs (25mg each) at 5PM so I don't start to get sleepy until 9pm......and then take the other 3 tabs just before bed....about 11:30pm......I wake up about 6:30am on my own.....if I get right up, I am fine....if I stay in bed, I get sleepy.....the Dr. has me totaly weaned off of lithium.....and I now have a much higher energy level all around.......but she also weaned me off zoloft because I very rarely had "lows" in my bipolar cycle.....and I hit a series of days of real, real lows....so I am on 100mg. zoloft.....I used to be on 200mg.......I am hoping the 100mg. is OK. The Dr. and I are wondering if I will have to go all the way up to 250mg of topamax. When I was on 75mg and 100mg I was very, very irritable, but that has passed with the higher dose.....and it may have been related partly to feeling tired. It seems to be controlling the manic cycle pretty well.....I know I need a styronger dose, still......but I have no other side effects....haven't gone near the scale, yet.....nor started a diet....don't want to be disappointed because I am hoping to lose the 60lbs. I gained on lithium. Comments, please???
poster:Bette Powers
thread:50878
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020313/msgs/98044.html