Posted by Ritch on June 13, 2003, at 23:27:25
In reply to Re: discontinuation-emergent akithisia, posted by avid abulia on June 13, 2003, at 13:31:44
> i recently (about 4 days ago) quit taking effexor (and i had to do it cold turkey because the reason was that it is exacerbating my seizure disorder--man, do i feel like i wanna die...) and i was wondering if effexor could cause akithisia upon discontinuation, if and when it would be likely to resolve, and is there anything i can do about it. i am allergic to, of all things, benadryl, and there is some increased seizure risk with cogentin and artane (or so my doc says, and i am inclined to trust him on that).
>
> or am i just pacing around cuz i`m a hyperactive s.o.b. anyway and effexor was suppressing that a bit and i just wasn`t noticing?
>
> also, i have recently (around the same time) increased my dose of keppra--does that do the old restlessness bit? good info on keppra is hard to find if you are pacing all the time.
>
>How much Keppra are you taking now? I tried 250mg bid along with Depakote a while back. I didn't get any restlessness from it. It seemed to turn me into a listless rag doll, if anything. Have you had trouble with other antidepressants aggravating your seizures? Sorry for the questions, just curious.
> i`m on 1500mg b.i.d. of keppra, 200mg b.i.d. of lamictal, and 2.5mg b.i.d. of inversine.
>
> i tried taking 1.25 mg b.i.d. of the valium sublingually, and that seems to have helped. anything more for me is really a knock-out dose unless i am having a migraine. actually, just the 1.25mg has got me nodding off now and then.
I didn't mention that Keppra seemed to *increase* anxiety for me. I slept like a charm on it though and my thinking was nice and clear-not clouded up like on other AED mood stabilizers. But, I would have this vague sense of doom feeling from it (difficult to explain). If you dropped the Effexor and doubled (?) the Keppra, it might be hard to figure out what caused what. Perhaps if I took *more* Keppra I might have become restless and paced (a "tired" restlessness?). OH well, after a couple of weeks if the restlessness doesn't die down-it might be the Keppra.
poster:Ritch
thread:233278
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030609/msgs/233864.html