Posted by yxibow on February 3, 2007, at 12:55:55
In reply to Question for yxibow, AED's, posted by notfred on February 2, 2007, at 10:20:49
> Jay,
>
> I noticed you know something about AED's and wanted to pick your brain. I am working with a neuro as it seems I had a tonic-clonic seizure, not sure if it was a general one or not. I am intrested in hearing
> your experiences with second gen AED's generally and with respect to also taking psyco meds with them.
>
> ThanksOoh -- that's a tricky one, are you saying you had a medium grade seizure because you have some epilepsy or is it a side effect of a medication?
Off the bat I would definately say no Gabitril. It can induce seizures contrary to thought.
I've been through Depakote, it has relatively few side effects and does help people with bipolar but I never seemed to get anything from it.
Trileptal, which is much safer than Tegretol is an option -- it just caused a reaction with another medication so I didn't get a full trial.
Lyrica, if you don't get blurry vision, seems to be good for some patients on the board and is stronger than Neurontin. Neurontin is fairly benign as it is self-regulating and after about 900mg at a time it just eliminates from the body. You might try Neurontin if it is okay with your neurologist as a test case.
There are some other ones out there, I've never tried Lamictal so I can't say.
In general, and especially with Gabitril, while these directly or indirectly aid GABA in the body, too much GABA can also cause a seizure, which I'm sure your neurologist has probably illustrated.
I would start with ones with the least side effects like Neurontin or Depakote, be carefully monitored by both your neurologist and a psychiatrist if you have both, and if you switch between AEDs do it slowly and taper over as you do not want to have another seizure at an inopportune time (not that there really is a great time... anyhow, you get the point.)
That's a short summary I can give you since I don't recall your diagnosis and given any concomitant illnesses such as epilepsy, however mild, it is something to go slow on.I hope that helps
-- Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:729013
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070201/msgs/729342.html