Personality change symptoms and conditions

This drug ruined a whole year of my life. Violent mood swings, depression, total personality change. For whatever reason it just did NOT agree with my body and I destroyed a lot of relationships because of how batshit insane this pill made me. I have been off of it for a year and my periods are painful and irregular but anything is better than the hell I went through on this pill.

26th August 2009 I am at the point of wanting to tear my husband into little pieces, nothing he does is right. My emotions are horrible ranging from angry to utterly furious. My anxiety level ranges between moderate to pounding heart almost panic attack level I presume. I am restless, cant sleep, swollen face, neck, puffed up shoulders, very weird stuff. My eyes are so so puffy I want to cry. My husband was so worried about my personality change he called the doctor who laughed and said that some people get some side effects with Prednisone. OMG why didn't the hospital staff and doctors say something about this when they were pumping the stuff into me? I actually was thinking my life was not worth living anymore.........everyone around me was angry at my bad behavior, which I could not control and still cant. What the hell is this all about, cant they use another drug? D. from Santa Barbara

I started to feel anxious, angry and disoriented. Also experienced muscle pain. Tried to keep taking it to get ride of Babesia but just couldn't keep going. Took four pills in a two week period. Still feeling many of the side effects but the anger and disorientation have slowly subsided after I stopped taking it. Scary, horrible feeling knowing I was becoming a different person, that my personality was changing. I was watching my personality change and couldn't influence it. I would never take this drug again.

We put our 3 year old son on Singulair 2 weeks ago for allergies. It seemed to be helping him. He is a very mild mannered kid that has never been an aggressive child and never bites or hits. In the last 4 days his mood has changed, and he has bitten 2 kids at school, hit one kid, bit and hit his grandpa, has been waking up with nightmares and has been very clingy to me (his mom). After reading the side effects of Singulair last night we contacted the pharmacist and told him what has happened and he told us to take him off the Singulair immediately and contact our Pediatrician. I am waiting for a phone call back now. I am saddened that a medication for Allergies can cause such a personality change.

To those with a history of depression or mood swings: DON'T TAKE THIS MEDICINE.

I started taking Loestrin 24fe in January 2009 to alleviate heavy and irregular periods. I managed to stick with it for a month and a half before the depression and mood swings were too much for me to handle. My boyfriend and six or seven other people (some whom I am close to and some whom I am just friends with) told me I was being strangely moody and wasn't acting like myself AT ALL. My moods fluctuated constantly during the day, always tending toward depression, but alternated between being extremely peppy and very depressed and dull, sometimes several times within a few hours. I started snapping at people for no reason, and random crying spells began as the mood swings went even further downhill to the point where those I am close to became seriously concerned about my mental state and feared that I would become suicidal. I could live with the other side effects-- acne, increased breast size & tenderness, nightmares, and spotting-- but not the personality change.

I stopped taking Loestrin 24 two days ago and immediately noticed a change in my personality. One of my close friends called me and two minutes into the conversation, she told me that I sound like my normal self for the first time since I started taking the pill. The mood swings are gone, as is the depression, and I'm willing to live with irregular periods and the hassle they can be rather than become a different person and end up taking even more medicines to treat the side effects of Loestrin.

Im 35 have 2 children and had mirena fitted in Feb of 2008. It was the most painful thing i have ever experienced. There was a med student in the room when he did it and she said after it was over that was the most brutal thing shes ever seen. After it was inserted i bled for about two weeks but it did let up. In the months that followed I experienced the acne,(i have always had clear skin), the weight gain, the fatigue, the headaches, the fogginess, and the worst to me was a major personality change. I was miserable. Depressed and extremely on edge all the time. I blamed my constant crankiness on the fact that I could no longer fit into any of my clothes, and the 15lbs that i had gained. In August my mom asked me if i was pregnant cuz she said I looked like i was. The day after my mom said that I went to weight watchers and did manage to lose 10 of those lbs. Which isnt that great considering i lost 42 lbs in 4mths when i went on it after i had my 2nd daughter and it took me 3 1/2 mths to lose 10! Anyway, 2 weeks ago i started with this dizziness and the tingling feeling in my arms and legs. Went to the doc and she said I had an inner ear infection. Took the meds she gave me and still felt crappy. Then last Monday i had a total breakdown. I couldn't get out of bed, the left side of my face was feeling like it was numb. My cousin came to see me and asked me what was wrong and I simply said "I think im losing my mind!" She said well u haven't been yourself since you had "that thing put in". So her and i got on the computer and googled mirena side effects and WOW!! I could not believe what I was reading. I could relate to every woman's story. I called my doc and had to fight with the idiots at the front desk but I got an appointment tues the 25th to have it removed. The doc looked at me like I was crazy when I told her what was going on. She said theres no way mirena was causing that and i should go see a neurologist but shed take it out for me anyway just to ease my mind.
Well let me tell you how I feel today 5 days post mirena. I feel WONDERFUL!!! I actually felt better within an hour after she removed it. The tingling and numbness stopped and that foggy feeling was gone, and my insides no longer felt like they were being squeezed together. I started heavy bleeding on Friday (at walmart on black Friday, to give you a laugh). Im going through a tampon every two hours but i have to say it feels wonderful. I just feel great I don't care about the bleeding at all thats how good I feel. My stomach is flat again, and when i weighed myself this morning i was 7lbs down from Monday, and i haven't been dieting at all, ate like a cow on thanksgiving. I even look different in the mirror. I swear my skin had a grayish tint to it when i had the mirena and today im all pink and rosy again. When i think about how i felt and the mths of my life that i lost, i cant believe a form of birth control caused that. They really need to educated people more on this device. Yea the thought of not having a period is cool but at what expense? Ill take my period over feeling like that any day!

I am a 65 year old female taking 20mlg of lipitor for almost 10 years. All of a sudden I started having severe pain, shaking and weakness in the calf muscle. The pain is unbearable. Doctors after doctors including a cardiologist, rhoumatologist and internist don't know the reason. I have stopped lipitor for 3 days. I cry and pray to god to help me everyday. I cannot exercise which is my passion for many years. I am hoping the lipitor is the reason and not something else. I have to wait and see. But I suspect it is.
SR
I do have nausea, depression and low back pain and arthritis and frequent headaches.

my 6 year old has what doctor's have called cough-induced asthma or reactive airway disorder. He doesn't wheeze but gets these severe coughing spells which get worse at night. Usually comes on during the colder months. He is on Flovent, and Singulair to maintain When he gets the coughing spells, he gets the Albuterol inhaler 2 puffs every 4 hours. It makes him NUTS. Literally climbs the walls, Can't sit still. I'd rather have him cough than to see him like this. Now with the most recent coughing episode, I've noticed an extreme personality change. To the point where his 1st grade teacher called me to ask if it could be the medicine. He's normally a shy kid, sweet now all of a sudden he's a social butterfly in school and interrupting the teacher. AT home, he's just not right .Doctor changed him to Xopenex inhaler but he's still not right.

I was given Dexpak for a severe sinus infection. I took it for 5 days and could no longer take the side effects, so I quit it cold turkey. I have been off from work almost the whole month because of this drug.

The side effects I had from it were:

• anxiety
• hyperactive
• uncontrolled talking
• severe tremors and shakes
• overheating
• loss of appetite
• sitting still and the room spinning
• loss of vision
• severe headache
• loss of concentration
• unable to think
• no sleep
• all upper body muscles tied into knots
• esophagus swollen and raw
• dizzy
• personality change

After I quit I became ravenous the next day. I ate a lot of protein and fruit. It has almost been a week since quitting. I still have problems sleeping, headaches, a swollen esophagus, sore muscles and my personality is not quite normal. Hopefully I will get back to normal.

My son is almost 5 now and has severe food and inhalant allergies, along with sever asthma. When he was 3 he was hospitalized for 4 days because of his asthma. I have been warned that only 1% of asthmatics will ever be hospitalized, so I've made sure he stays on all his meds. He has been on Singular ever since he was 15 months old. At first it was a God send. Everyday was a constant challenged, fussy, icthy red eyes, constant flow of mucous and wheezing. I would have to pin him down 6 times a day with the inhaler, but when Singular came "poof" it was like magic. He was on Singular when he was hospitalized and is now on 3 meds; Zrytec, Singular and Q-var all given to him everyday. Lately we have had some major issues come up for him. I think I have the next J. D. living with me. NO FOR REAL. My next step is a shrink. You might think I'm mean for saying it, but I don't know how else to describe it. When I was driving he asked for some gum, because I wouldn't let him pick out his own piece, he got out of his car seat and started hitting me over and over again, pulled my hair and tried to "break my arm" as he put it. I had to pull over and I couldn't get him to calm down he kept slapping me in the face and kicking me not only was I embarrassed, but it hurt, I was crying. I have finally come here trying to see if other children, who are on Singular, have had similar episodes. He is a very good boy most of the time and aggression is a hit and miss. I don't know what to do.

personality change, self destructive behavior, anxiety, I would want to be the opposite of who I am. negative thoughts about myself. recklessness, hollowness. insane thoughts. feeling like im dreaming.

Everybody here knows that I have been interested in trying to find out if Singulair (montelukast), which is a quinoline, ionizes and forms quinolinic acid under physiological conditions that lower blood pH. Some researchers have also mentioned that another montelukast metabolite that occurs is known to be a toxin. In other words, until someone can get blood tests that confirm what the toxic metabolic is, we are just guessing but I would bet that it is a good guess.

One of the strongest cases for that argument would be what happens to some people during sleep. There are some people whose CO2 levels rise. If the levels rise enough to cause change in pH to a more acid condition, then montelukast can possibly ionizes just enough to create minute amounts of neurotoxins that could cause bad dreams, hallucinations, sleep deprivation or a number of other neuro-psychiatric problems. Compound the effect of night after night of minute amounts of neurotoxins caused by CO2 and montelukast ionization then it would be easy to understand how depression and personality change results. There are other conditions that cause elevated CO2 levels and acidosis such as COPD.

If anyone has any data regarding their CO2 levels from sleep studies or other bloods tests, would you please send me a private message?

Last week, I had a PhD psychologist tell me that she is seeing a lot of patients come forward with Singulair stories, much like these. She's had at least 8 patients so far, and she has now added questions about allergy and Singulair to her patient intake procedures. Basically, they've all suffered from some sort of depression and personality change.

I am one of many that has decided to stop giving my child Singulair. And like many others, I have noticed a great improvement in her behavior.

My question is for those who have done the same. What medication have you replaced the Singulair with and have you noticed any of the same side effects that Singulair was causing? What are your thoughts on Flovent inhaler?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Here is some perspective for you all. I take Singulair and do well on it and in ACTUAL studies it has one of the safest safety records. Understand that post marketing reporting does not mean there is a correlation between the event and the product. Throughout the life of a drug the companies must disclose any report of side effects reported to them REGARDLESS of causality. A popular antihistamine that is OVER THE COUNTER also has suicidal thinking/behavior listed in its post marketing section. However, just because patients who had reported having these thoughts while taking the product doesn't mean it was a result of the product! Maybe they had a depressive personality and were also on multiple other medicines to treat that. You must look at the "Adverse Reactions, Warnings and Precautions" sections of package inserts to see the side effects that were actually seen in studies. You can die from ulcers derived from over use of aspirin or ibuprofen. Decongestants can throw off your blood pressure and these events are documented in actual studies! Listen to your bodies when taking any med. If you feel differently report it to your doctor.

These are all drugs people, there are potential side effects. There are also side effects to those "natural" over the counter remedies that are not nearly as regulated by the FDA or studies by the drug companies.

To anyone out there who has experienced side effects to singulair timed to when you started it, talk to your doctor, stop taking it and see if it goes away. Same advice for any product prescription or over the counter medicine. Side effects can be a combination of many factors (what other meds are you taking?) But understand for many people this product is the safest and most effective treatment for them. The FDA and Merck are reviewing all information to see if there is any correlation to the reporting. But singulair been around for about 10 years and prescibed to billions of people and is known to be one of the safer medicines out there overall.

In between the legitimate posts on this site I get the sense there is a lot of ambulance chasing going on. People looking to cash in on this big drug companies. We want drugs, we want them cheap and with no side effects which is not a reality. Keep stepping up the regulation and make the companies hire more lawers to protect themselves and jump through even more hoops and see what happens to the price and access to new meds. Even better, see how regulation has impacted the development of new medicines around the world (here's a tip, it will dramatically decrease). Drug companies certainly aren't perfect but which industry is?

Please, when taking any medicine over the counter, prescription or herbal supplement listen to your bodies to see if the potential benefits of the product outway the risks or side effects. Report any changes to your doctor.

My six year old daughter was given this medication for idiopathic generalized epilepsy. As soon as she started on this drug we noticed a complete personality change. She was a completely different person. She seemed to be possessed while on this medication. My daughter is a sweet little girl, and is very good for the most part, but when she started this medication it turned her into a monster. She was on this medication for about 2 months, and was taken off it when we got a second opinion. She has not been on any medications while we explore additional opinions for her condition (which is very unusual - she does not have seizures like most people do). I would not recommend this medication to anyone.

my son is almost 4 and has been taking singulair since right before he turned 2! I am just blown away by all these things i've heard and now read about this med. I NEVER would have thought about this making him act the way he does! I thought it was just his terrible 2's and 3's! He has major anger issues, he screams out of nowhere for no apparent reason, when he gets in trouble he hits me or makes these horrible faces! he scares me sometimes! he has trouble falling asleep but once he is asleep he is out for like 11 hours sometimes! Here in the past yr when he plays with other kids he is very very mean to them... hitting them, beating them up, yelling at them.. i've NEVER seen my son act like that! It really sucks when other people just don't even wanna be around anymore b/c your kid is so mean! Which he has never been a mean kid! everyone loves him to death but can't understand why is so mean and has these outbursts sometimes! B/C that just isn't my Brayden!! sometimes i just think he is flat out crazy... like maybe i need to get him tested for some kinds of disorders! i just don't know what to do! the doc will tell me its normal 3 yr old behavior I'm afraid... and now if i take him he will think i am some crazy mother who is hearing all these stories and believing everything! Well hell ya I'm reading all this and believing everything cuz I'm sitting here experiencing the exact same thing other moms are who's children are on the same medications! I've even thought maybe its me i just had a baby 3 months ago so maybe its postpartum... so went to the doc and she has me on Zoloft which i DON'T need... I'm not a depressed person at all! But i have days where i just don't know what to do with my 3yr old i just cry i cant handle it it is entirely to much for me! it just blows me away to think that it may all be caused by a med that I give my child every night to help him! But is it really doing more goood than bad? I don't even wanna know whats gonna happen next... what is he gonna do?! I don't wanna even think about the possibilities... To know i may have an answer to his anger and everything else is kinda relieving, yet this whole thing scares me!! The med has seemed to help his breathing problem since hes been on it though! But if it makes him angry I'm sure the zyrtec and breathing treatments will do just fine!!

I'm just heartbroken over this. My 6-year old identical twin boys have been on Singulair for 4 years to help control severe asthma. Looking back...I now realize there was a definite "personality" change in both of them after going on it. I've been living with it for 4 years now and have just "gotten used to it." Since October, one of my sons has experienced severe back pain, abdominal pain, fatigue, swollen lymph nodes (though I don't know if this is related), and sadness. I have put him through tests because I just knew something was wrong - he has had an MRI spine, CT chest, abdominal ultrasound, and lymph node biopsy (all negative). I am just crushed because I wonder if I have put him through these tests for absolutely NO reason. That all along, it has been the Singulair. My other son has had insane mood swings for the past 4 years and I had just chalked it up to his personality. He can be extremely mean to his brother and has indicated to me that sometimes he just doesn't "want to be."

The only positive thing out of this is that I learned how insightful my pediatrician is. He took both boys off the Singulair about 6-8 weeks ago. I have noticed a slight improvement in his symptoms, but they have not yet all gone away. I'm hoping there's not lasting damage...

Well, I am not posting a side effect. I actually stumbled upon this website while trying to look up whether hypoglycemia is a side effect of Levaquin. I am a physician assistant and routinely prescribe this medication. Unfortunately ALL medications have the potential for causing many many many different side effects. Obviously one has to weigh the benefits of using the medication with the risk of side effects. And certain side effects are obviously more common than others. While I appreciate the point of a website like this, it is very frustrating for me, as a clinician, to read someone posting things that are absolutely untrue which can potentially cause undue distress or worry for everyone who may read it. I am referring to the person who wanted "to let everyone know of the relationship between levaquin and vancomycin." Her only source for this WRONG information is a nurse who told her daughter. Did she ever think that the nurse could be wrong and that maybe before posting something like that she should ask a pharmacist or a physician. Vancomycin and floroquinolones are not related pharmacologically!!!!

My husband took Chantix before I tried it. He was a two pack a day smoker and honestly, I thought he would never give it up.

He had all the normal side effects at first. The nausea was the worst but he learned that eating first helped. Then of course there was the dreams but he could also live with that. All in all, he didn't really notice any change in himself at all. But there was a change and it hasn't changed back yet, and he has been off Chantix for over six months now.

At first, we thought it was just nicotine withdrawal that was making him so mean. But as the days turned to weeks, then weeks to months, it is obvious to his entire family that this medicine has caused a complete personality change in him. He is always so angry. We have been married for over twenty years, and it has just been in the past few months that he has actually been really mean to me. Not physically, just verbally. It seems that we argue about everything. I can never do anything to please him anymore. Everything that goes wrong is my fault. He is just basically an unhappy person now.

The worst part is how it effects our teen age children. They hate to go places that includes him. He is so quick to fly off the handle with them. He has embarrassed me by talking down to me in public and he has done the same to the kids. He would have never done that before. He used to really care if he hurt my feelings, but now, it is as if he doesn't care anymore. He agrees that he seems more agitated than normal, but says he just doesn't know what to do about it. It just has effected his whole personality and it seems that it is a permanent change, since he has been off Chanitx for more than six months now.

He says he hurts a lot now, his muscles and joints ache all the time. That is another side effect that I have found occurs with Chantix users. His memory and concentration is terrible now. He will swear he told us something or asked us to do something for him, when in truth, he has said nothing. He will begin to say something and stop in mid sentence, leaving us waiting to hear what he is saying. When we tell him that he did not finish his statement, he gets angry at us. We feel like we are in a no win situation when dealing with him, so we just walk on egg shells around him now. I want my husband back and my children want their father back.

Yes he is smoke free, but at what cost to him and his family? This drug should have never been allowed to be put on the market without further testing.

Luckily I only took it for three days. But during those three days, my vision got so blurry that I could not even see the TV, and could barely drive a car safely. I called Pfizer to ask about this and at first, thought they were really concerned about me. But then I realized they only wanted to document my side effect. After stopping the medicine, my vision cleared up. I then wrote to Pfizer and complained. I demanded they refund my money and they did, without any questions.

So to everyone who is taking this or considering taking this, please don't! Please stop now if you are taking it. It is a dangerous drug. Smoking is bad for us, we know that. But at least it is something we know. We don't know all the dangers of this drug yet. It is just not worth the risk.

My son is 40 years old, diagnosed with Downs Syndrome. In April 2007 he had a sore on his leg diagnosed as Cellulites. 15 days of Lavaquin 750 mg. was prescribed. Since taking this medication he has had a complete personality change. He appears to be hallucinating and is constantly talking to himself. He previously enjoyed TV and music. He now continues to watch TV but with the volume very low. He is no longer interested in music. He is more involved in talking to himself. We have taken him for every medical test available with no problem diagnosed. He has also been to an Neurologist, again with nothing unusual noted. He constantly is in the bathroom attempting to go to the bathroom. Yes, he has also had all the urology and gastro. tests, nothing noted. Very frustrating. Appears to be the result of the Lavaquin.

When a class action lawsuit is filed, let me know....this drug should be taken of off the market immediately. We started all of this with an OB/GYN that prescribed this “miracle pill” and now have had to go not only to our primary doctor, but also a psychiatrist, gastrenologist, college campus counselors, psychologists, psychiatrist, and the campus medical doctors; All the while, accumulating enormous doctor bills. All the doctors say, "No, Yasmin won't cause those problems" (except the college campus doctors..wonder why? Hmm.. could it be that they are not in private practice?)....well, I beg to differ. Everyone needs to give this website to their doctor so the doctors can hear from the patients that have taken this drug, and not listen to the pharmaceutical companies that are pushing this drug to be the "miracle pill". Maybe if enough people complain and go to the media, we can get rid of this drug!
My daughter who is 18 was put on Yasmin because of irregular periods, hormonal imbalance, etc. We were told it was the new “miracle pill”. It will make you loose weight, regulate your periods, clear up acne, you name it, it will fix it. Yeah, right.
She started taking this pill in March 2007. She was off at college but called to tell me she was experiencing horrible headaches, behind the eyes. She complained about her stomach hurting, but we just figured it was the stress of freshman year at college. Then she said she got where she couldn’t eat when she went to a restaurant. When she came home in May for the summer, I noticed a total personality change. For example, she was always a neat freak, and now she wouldn’t clean her room. The first day when she drove home, she started crying she was so mad about the traffic. Yes, she has always had a little road rage, but this was ridiculous.
By June, not only could she not be in crowds, like at a restaurant, but now she is having full blown panic attacks and IBS. We called the OBGYN and they said, “Yasmin won’t cause this, go see your primary doctor”. I knew that the only thing that had changed with her was taking the YASMINE. I knew it had something to do with all of this so I “Googled Yasmin” and this website (http://www.medications.com/se/yasmin) was the first one I looked at. All of her symptoms matched everyone else’s! I am so glad we found this website, it explained everything and I had her to stop Yasmin immediately.
So we went to the primary doctor, explained about the Yasmin and how we thought it was the culprit of everything. Of course this doctor also says, “Yasmin won’t cause that”. We told him to look it up on the internet and see how there are over 3000 complaints on this drug, more than any of the other drugs on the market.
Besides the emotional problems she starting having, her pulse and blood pressure was sky high, so he puts her on medicine for that, and puts her on an anxiety medicine and sends her to a psychiatrist. She is very thirsty all the time, and develops IBS. She can’t eat without having pains in her stomach. So, now we’ve have gone from having just irregular periods, to all of the above, plus a psychiatrist.
The psychiatrist doubles her medicine (and puts her Pamine for the IBS) because the panic attacks are gone, but she still is having a lot of nervousness, anxiety, can’t sleep at night, crazy thoughts, worrying all the time, etc. A month later he changes her medicine again, to Effexor. The first 2 weeks, she does okay, but the packet doubles the strength after 2 weeks. It takes 4 weeks for it to take full effect. Right after she doubles this medicine, it is like her senses are on hyper-mode. She can taste everything that is in her food (chili powder, seasonings, etc…), taste the metal in water, and she can hear someone’s phone vibrating, in another room.
Then she goes back to college at the end of August 2007, and it’s horrible. The Effexor is having bad, bad side effects. We called the psychiatrist that she was using at home and he doubled the dose. That was the worse thing they could’ve done. The side effects were worse than ever. I had her to immediately go to a psychiatrist on campus. She told him the whole story and he believed her! Needless to say we switched doctors. He then lowered her dose back down to ½ a dose and hopefully can slowly get her off of all this medicine.
The newest thing she has developed is being hypoglycemic. The campus psychiatrist sent her to a campus medical doctor and he told her that they would get to the bottom of this. He tested her for everything under the sun. Low blood sugar is the only thing they found. But, she hasn’t taken the Yasmin since May. No telling what the results would have came back like if it was done at the time she was taking Yasmin.
Thank goodness she has counselors and doctors there at the campus that believes that Yasmin can cause all of these problems, and are working with her. From what I have read from the people that have used this medicine, although most doctors do not agree, Yasmin takes like 6 months to get out of your system. I think I am going to believe the testimonials of the people who take this medicine, over a doctor who prescribes it.
If everyone goes to the media, their doctors, the FDA, congressmen, and make them aware of these horrible effects, surely we can get this drug off of the market! Does anyone know a class action lawyer that would pursue this? For my child to have to go through all of this is ridiculous, not to mention costly. What do we know of the long term effects this drug will have if it is doing all of this when you first start taking it?
If you have the same concerns as me about this drug, and would be interested in looking into a class action lawsuit, please email: ****** I would be interested to see how many would want to pursue this.

My 14 year old son began Lamictal 2 weeks ago for absent seizures, starting at 12.5 mg at night for one week, then 25 mg for one week and then will increase by adding a morning dose at this rate; ultimately to titrate up to 100 mg at night and 100 mg in the morning. The slow increase in dosing is supposed to avoid the life-threatening Stevens-Johnson syndrome (indicated initially by a rash).

I have noticed he is moody, angry and tearful now. I find this concerning since it is also prescribed for mood stabilization. He complains of body aches and especially leg pains/soreness. I think his short-term memory difficulties are worsened. He has made comments that he doesn't care if he lives or dies.

I noticed that his lymph nodes in his neck and just below his skull are a little enlarged, though he saw his pediatrician yesterday and they are not big enough to be considered outside normal range.

I am a nurse, and drew blood work at home today to rule out infection and look at liver function. There are no tests which quantify a therapeutic range for lamictal--it's very individualized.

I want to take him off of the lamictal and am looking for alternative ways to minimize seizures, such as exercise, diet, vitamin supplements, omega oils, perhaps neurofeedback, massage therapy, music therapy--any and all things which may help.

I feel like my child is sliping away from me with this personality change; I want to find out why he is having seizures rather than just treat symptoms which are the siezures. I'm reading--night and day and will not give up until I am convinced there are no natural approaches which are better than drugs. It's exhaustive to put the work into it, but I think it is necessary.

It is recommended that Lamictal be tapered off over about 2 weeks, to prevent siezures--whether you are taking it for this or not. I don't know how his neurologist will respond to this request to take him off. I think it's important to have a good working relationship with your doc. However, in my view a good doc is open to individualized concerns and alternative treatments.

My heart goes out to all of you who are struggling with your own problems and suffering side effects. I wish I could do something to help you. In my journey to learn, I will post any things which I discover to be helpful to my son, though they may not pertain to your particular problems, they may also be of help to you.

I have learned that seizures cause oxidative stress to tissues, just like an apple browns once you have bitten into it--it does so due to oxidation. Vitamins C, E and selenium may help, since they are antioxitants. Siezures disrupt the metabolism of essential fatty acids, so supplementing with omega 3 and 6 oil may be helpful--these oils also stabilize cellular membranes, because cell membranes are constructed of phospholipids derived from these essential oils. At minimum, I would do these things.

Exercise may help, and also a modified Atkins diet. I have always struggled with depression, and nothing helps me other than exercise and eating a diet restricted in simple carbs and sugars. I think this is important for everyone, as this is the way to prevent and sometimes also reverse type 2 diabetes. Everyone should eat like this and exercise--this is the best mood stabilizer of which I know.

I think that most illnesses are related to metabolism, and in this day, we are exposed to unhealthy foods continuously and our lifestyles/jobs make it difficult to get physical activity. I believe our bodies are screaming at us to make changes in this, and that is why we are having so many problems with illness in general.

I know it is hard to exercise when you are depressed, but if you can do it, you will see the changes in the quality of your lives. Be careful though, becuase the meds you all are taking may put you at unknown risks for injuries that I have no knowledge of.

I wish you all well.

Sherry

I believe that it is best to try to find natural ways to help

CHANGE OF MOOD AND PERSONALITY CHANGE DEPRESSION SLEEPINESS, FACE SWELLING.

Hi Everyone,
I have been taking Topamax 25 mg for 1 week. I can't stand it. Today I am to up my dosage to 50 mg.I am not sure if I want to do that. The side effects suck.. I think I would rather just deal with my migraines, at least I know how to do that since I have had them for over 25 years. I have tried everything and nothing has worked so the Dr. and I thought we would give this a try.
I am trying to keep my place of employment happy with trying to cut down on the migraines but nothing works.
Most days I just want to give up.
Hopefully we will be able to figure something out.

I can't stand the pickhands and feet, the stumbling like I am drunk( and I dont' drink) nothing tastes right anymore, I have the shakes and I ache.
And all it does is makes me sleepy and like I am in another world.
I went to work today and made it half an hour before I came home because I stumbled and almost fell over. And when the boss talked to me it was like I wasn't there. So I came home. I don't know but I don't like it at all.