Posted by Sue4 on November 10, 2001, at 9:37:51
In reply to Re: Trileptal and topomax » Sue4, posted by Mitch on November 10, 2001, at 0:53:50
Who knows Mitch, maybe I've had the cognitive sfx with Topomax, but just don't know it, like I said, I am in postgrad school parttime...but I feel like I'm struggling compared to everyone else..it could be that at 47, these things are to be expected, especially when I've been "out of the ballpark" so to speak for such a long time and the illness has been part of my life since college though not diagnosed until recently...so my career never really took hold because I kept switching jobs and never stayed in one more than a year. I know that trileptal was used in Europe for quite awhile before being approved recently in the US by the FDA.
Btw, I was very motivated to stick with Topomax, I wanted it to work because after Depakote, I never, ever wanted to try a medication that required blood tests or gave me such horrible side effects. I would rather take my chances with the mortality issues associated w/ a diagnois of BPII than be given other very known associated mortality risk factors from the side effects of medications that supposedly help treat the BPII diagnosis. Thus, from this point on, I will only consider meds that do not require blood monitoring...trileptal is one of them....the nausea you experienced on trileptal, how long did it last...did you give it a sufficient trial?? Or do you think it had do to w/ the fact that it lowered the sodium in your blood levels, which is a side effect of trileptal??
> Hi Sue,
>
> Wow, that is amazing you have gotten to that level on TOP without any major cognitive sfx (no wonder you probably don't need an AD)! I would agree that Neurontin is a relatively mild mood stabilizer that needs an adjunct to work well. Never tried Lamictal-want to avoid that one. I have a history of hives-skin reactions to meds and have to take allergy shots (for molds/dust systemic reactions) to prevent that. I believe that Topamax shares a similar mechanism of action to Tegretol/Trileptal (could someone enlighten us to what that is?-I think it is voltage-dependent sodium channels??). I think he is onto something. I would go for the Trileptal add-on. I definitely had an AD effect from it. I just got nauseated easily. Just start low-go slow on it, who knows? I have had a lot of cognitive blunting on GABA-affecting AED's like Depakote/Klonopin/Gabitril, etc. Maybe the sodium/calcium ion-channel affecting meds would be less blunting? Neurontin's mechanism of action isn't really GABA enhancement it is selective calcium-channel antagonism in the hippocampus, FWIW.
poster:Sue4
thread:83661
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011104/msgs/83770.html