Hi Everyone, I have been taking Topamax 25 mg for 1 week. I can'...

I have been taking topamax for a couple months. I have muscle weakness, memory loss, poor eyesight, hair loss, cogntive problems (including spelling) and I my husband has noticed a personality change -- for the worse.

I want off too. I started for migraines. It has helped some. I have lost 20 pounds which is the only good thing. I am going to wean myself off because I am still looking for a new neuro. I hope you can find something else that helps you. I was warned about this drug before I started on it, but I didn't want to believe it because I wanted to lose weight and I wanted it to stop the headaches. But I just read on line that there have been TWENTY EIGHT confirmed cases of blindness reported. The neurologist I went to that presribed it said the symptoms would go away when I stopped the drug. Evidently, this may not be so. PLEASE check back with your doctor or find another one and find another med to take--- before you hurt yourself or the topamax causes damage that isn't reversable. It's too bad it hasn't worked for us. Because it does really well for some people. My sister in law has been on it for 2 or 3 years and has had no side effects. And no migraines. Please take care and be well. Good luck to you.

i felt exactly the same way you did. exactly. first week 25 mg. dizzy, lightheaded, silly, "drugged" sleepy (all day), stumbled over my feet, my head was "cloudy". now is my 5th week and i am 25mg in the am and 25mg at bedtime. i dont feel silly anymore. not really any side effects anymore. no migraines!!! i am happy now. sometimes my chest feels tight but i dont know if thats related to the drug or not. overall, i am satisfied after i got through the initial start-up phase.

i know exactly how you feel, i was just started on topamax, and i'm hating it, i'm in constant clouds of dizziness, i try to walk and i often fall over; everything i do has to be very deliberate and planned, or i can't move, i don't feel like myself any more, and i want off, but my neuro won't let me; i hope it works for you, and i wish you the best of luck

Hey everyone,i guess what id like to say is maybe you need to give it a try its not always the drug itself sometimes its the way our body handles a drug and this can go for even vitamins.try for 5 weeks you wont go blind in 5weeks.sometimes we suffer just a bit to get ahead i have had migraines for 30 years now sadly nothing has helped prevent them.immitrex helps them but not prevent them.topamax didnt work but i take 25mg at night to help sleep because most migraine suffers also cant sleep.as far as the weight loss thing it helps that only because the drug is also used for obsessive compulisive disorder.i wouldnt aim for the drug to be used for weight loss i would keep my focus on migraines.honestly im there too. Laura

hello everyone, well as all of you i am on topomax. unlike any of you though i have been on it for a year and a half. also i am 15 years old. i started this was i was bout 13 or 14 . i must add that topomax has never been tested on anyone below the age of 16. at first i took 50 mg a day for about 1 year and then decided to wean myself off of it due to much progress with my headaches. In the beginning, my symptoms were neasua, even more migraines, etc. the usual when you are started a new medication. Once i started to wean myself off of it symptoms just got worse. Mood change was the most significant. Depression started shortly after. i have hid my depression from my family for some time now hopeing that it would just be a phase in a teenage girls life and it was. things are getting better. eventhough depression has stopped, i have become somewhat bipolar. i will get into fits of rage very easily or i will jsut sit there and was to cry out of know where. i have no mentioned any of this to my doctor or my parents. Well another thing i MUST caution against about 2 weeks ago i jsut stopped taking my meds. i thought it would be good to test to see how things would work out. Well now things are horrible. my migranes have come back with a vengenses and my body aches like there is no tomorrow and also strage symptoms. when sitting in first period yesterday i began to feel dizzy and then my vision completly blurred and i felt like iw as watching myself in a movie or something. iw as there, but at the same tiem i wasnt. i was scared so i took medicine for sevre headaches. after taking that i felt like my brain was on fire. the pain was unbelievable. i jsut wanted to die. after a while it got better. but i still feel uneasy. like im floating on a cloud. another symptom that has hurt my attendence in shcool is that it was weakened my immune system. i get sick on average 1-2 times a month with cold or flu like symptoms. its very hard on the body. if you are taking topomax i do not suggest long term use of it. find other sourses to cure your migraines. yes, it was helped my go from 4 migraines a week+1-2 headaches a day to almost 3 headaches a month but the side effects are takinga toll on me. i will be happy once i am completly off tomopax to see if my heeadaches stay at a minuim

Anyone feeling depressed on Topamax 100mg?

ive been 0n t0pamax 25 mg. f0r ab0ut 2 weeks n0w and ive been experiencing dizzyness and nausea ... it alm0st feels as if s0meb0dy is smushing my head with s0mething, it sucks! ... i was 0n t0pamax a year ag0 f0r my migraines, when i n0ticed the side effects i immediately st0pped taking it ... the neur0 then put me 0n amitryptlene which then i n0ticed the same side effects, s0 i st0pped takin th0se as well ... its been a year and i decided that i need t0 take charge and get rid 0f these migranes s0 im back 0n t0pamax unfortunately, i h0pe things get better.

i have felt that way now taking it for 7 years now and nobody seems to
care

I have been on Topamax for about 3 yrs. now. Really not sure how much it's helped the migraines. Maybe some what. Started on a low dosage lost some weight, then gained. Upped the dosage, per Doc. lost weight (yeah) again gained it and not happy. Any body else. Not that I'm taking it to loose weight but if it is supppose to have that side effect I sure could use the help. And after reading the other blogs, I'm relating to the slight depression, maybe total lack of interest in alot of things.....Never really put two and two together before. Also taking Frova along with the Topamax as needed and well I've needed it alot lately. Does any one think the weather is a factor?

I started taking Topamax on July 14,2008 for migraines, and I must say I have gone from my daily head pounding to, 2 pounding' s in a month.
I have noticed a lot of joint pain and my hands an feet go numb and they fall asleep.
I seem to drop a lot of things even when my hands are not tinglingly,
I get real chatty and have racing thoughts, and depressive thinking and angry thoughts that I have to check my self before I open my mouth to speak .
I am still in the process of building up my dosage plan so I am hoping this will all pass.
Has anyone else experienced joint pain or hands and feet falling asleep during normal activity? Hay the weight loss thing would be a great to get, guess that one passed me by.

hey guys ... i just started on topamax yesterday for my migraines and ive already started getting side affects :O .... all off to day i have had numbness and pins and neddles in my hands and feet ... like constently .. i really dont like that !! i do get pins and needles sometimes but not that last this long ... its horrible. my arms and legs ache and i feel sick !!! ive only had one tablet ha ha ??!!!! i have also tried eveything and nothing has worked so far, tripline bla bla ... so they thought they would give this ago ... im not sure after reading all these post and having these side affects after just having one tablet ha ha i wonder what its going to go like with more ??!!!! this sucks !

I have been taking Topamax 25mg morning and night for about 6 months and am very PLEASED with the way it is controlling my Migraines.

For nearly 10 years I had Migraine of the optical nerve (both eyes) nearly every day, sometimes 2-3 times in a 24-hour period, and also extreme weak spells that caused me to nearly pass out, totally separate from the Migraines. I had tried other meds for short periods but the side effects were worse than the Migraines and weak spells.

uring the first 2-3 weeks with Topamax, I experienced the tingling, (even my gums!), my hands and feet going to sleep, inattentiveness, and other symptoms posted on this board, however, compared to a Migraine or side effects with prior meds, these were too mild to even complain about. The Migraines now come infrequent and fade quickly. Was that not the goal?

There's no such thing as a miracle drug. I VERY much appreciate that my doctor cared enough about me to offer Topamax (even as a last resort because of the reported side effects) because it has absolutely made a POSITIVE difference in my life.

Calm down.
Be patient.
Give it a fair chance.
Maybe it can do the same for you.

I used to have migraines every day since i can remember (I am 21), so i started taking topamax about a year ago due to my doctor advise. When i started, i had numbness in my hands and feet, and had a dramatic lose of weight, but my headaches were almost gone, it was the only thing that helped, i was really hopeful, so i said, ok let´s forget about losing weight and numbness, the doctor said it was normal and the symptoms would dissappear eventually, and that not everyone experiences the same. The numbness dissappeared. But like one of you said, mood was the most significant change with me, i also became kind of bipolar, it was like one minute i was so happy but the next i was so mad or crying; i told my dr. and said it was my way of being . Last january the dosage increased from 50 mg , to 100 mg per day and now i am really convinced i have serious depression, i don´t really feel like doing anything at all, i am always sad, i feel sleepy all day even when i sleep 8-10 hours at night, i have serious problems to concentrate at school, problems at remembering stuff, I fight with my family in a very angry way and then I cry, it´s really awful. It´s really not going so well for me, i talked to the dr. almost crying telling her all my symptoms..so i will stop taking topamax, i really hope that will help. So i if you see that you are having any rare symptom tell it to your doctor, and make it stop, it might get worse. But don´t stop taking topamax out of the blue, it has to be eventually, otherwise you will suffer migraines worse than before.
Really I get to a point where i prefer to get where i was before I started the treatment than feeling sad and depressed all the time.