Topamax and memory problems

I was placed on Topamax, off label, for suspected bipolar illness (now disproven). My cognition, word finding abilities, memory has been so adversely affected that I am now on disability. I had 5 kidney stones due to the development of Renal Tubular Acidosis, nearing renal failure (a side effect doctors don't warn patients about). This in turn led to osteomalacia, softening of the bones, only discovered after I broke all three major bones in my leg and snapped off my foot stepping off the lowest seat of a bleecher. I've suffered tingling in arms, hands, legs & feet (nerve damage), lesions in the brain, muscle spasms, heat & cold intolerance, insomnia etc... Although I lost weight, I gained it back (then some) as soon as I reduced the dosage of 800 mgs. Upon stopping the drug to save my kidneys, thus my life, my kidney function returned to almost normal within a few months, although there is residual damage. All other side affects remain two years later. Losing weight is not worth dying! Beware of this drug being used off label! I would never trust this drug!

Have been taking topamax for 4 months and now have hand and feet tingling. major spelling and memory loss issues. My question is Does any one else have HIP PAIN??? I can't think of any reason why I have it now... except for the addition of the topamax.Thanks, TL

I'm a 26 year old female and I've been on Topamax since March 2007. It has completely gotten rid of the debilitating headaches I experienced 3-6 times a week. It also got rid of my anxiety. I got my life back, my antidepressant kicked in at the same time. I experienced all the usual side-effects, tingling hands and feet, forgetting words, memory problems, loss of appetite, but was COMPLETELY pain-free. I still am. However, I never remember anything now, forget whether or not I did something, paid my bills, etc, lose things constantly, and I have lost about 20 lbs. Not good. I look anorexic. I have bones sticking out. Eating is hard. I forget to eat and drink all day and food is just unappealing. I feel fuzzy and stupid and slow. Not sharp like I used to be. It has killed my confidence and self-esteem. But I was wondering if any women out there got yeast infections while they were on Topamax. I've had one monthly since I started it, and my doc said it's a rare side effect. Oh yeah, I've had mild hair loss and mild to moderate acne now. This drug, it is such a 50-50. Living with chronic pain, those headaches were awful. But doubting yourself is awful too. Anyone have similar experiences?

Hi All, I am a 37 year old mother of 4, with a history of severe Hemiplegic migraines (up to 14 a month). I've been on Verapamil and Topamax for 7-8 months with a gradual increase of the Topamax to 150 mg a day. Before I start writing this I have to preface it with two things: First, Before Topamax I was one of those women my friends refer to as a "Supermom", I home school my kids and used to love it, we normally have a lot of fun and I have a successful, happy marriage. Second, on Topamax, I went from 14 migraines a month to 0. It didn't happen over night, they went away as we ramped up the dosage, but for the last few months I have had no migraines, I can feel it occasionally when my head is fighting one off, but nothing an Advil won't stop, and for those of us who've lived with trying to care for kids while having migraines (especially Hemiplegic) you may understand why I initially put up with the following: I started out with the tingling in my hands and feet (that went away in a couple of months), word finding difficulties (which never really went away, I just learned to accept it),occasional blurred vision which never lasts very long but which has been an issue the entire time I've been on the med, and weight loss ...I am 5'4" and was only 118 lbs to start with, and have nearly "disappeared" into a size 0 and 105 lbs, and it doesn't matter how much I eat, I've been trying 3 meals, snacks, cookies, candy, you name it, I can't gain weight. I was never nauseous, no diarrhea, I just don't get hungry... I had to start wearing a watch at one point to remind myself to feed the kids, because if they didn't ask, they weren't getting lunch until 2:00 because I wasn't getting hungry! Soda does taste like metal (fortunately I don't drink it normally anyway), and you do get loopy with one glass of anything alcoholic.
Then to add to the lovely appearance of skin and bones, my hair is falling out. Before Topamax I worked out regularly, I am even on commercials for my gym (recorded a year ago), since Topamax, I was so tired, depressed, and so afraid of losing weight that I stopped working out. Now a woman who has always made it a goal to set a good example for my daughters that a fit body is the goal, not a thin body, has her mother in law telling her that she looks "bulimic"! In August I noticed I was crying a lot, then I thought well, maybe it's the Topamax, so I started drinking more water and it went away... so I've been very careful to drink A LOT of water and only decaf tea while on this med, but apparently that wasn't enough, because a few weeks ago my husband pointed out that I stopped showering every day. I have been crying at the drop of a hat for a couple of months again, and I have never been someone to cry in public, I have even started crying in front of my daughters friends' mothers and near tears in front of her teacher over the littlest things... then last weekend I found myself with four hours to myself in my house for the first time in months and I was thinking about how I might be able to use it for unspeakable things like running away, or worse... if those aren't signs of a pretty severe depression I don't know what are, fortunately I recognized them and put them together with the memory problems, etc. As for the memory loss, there have been problems with that for months as well, my daughter has been telling me I "have a bad rememberer" , This weekend everything culminated and other people were recognizing the memory issues that I had been keeping private until now (including my husband). Before that, I would be in the kitchen cooking and forget what I was doing, I went to drive to a party this weekend and forgot where I was going, so I called a friends husband and he had to tell me four times where to go before I could retain it (at first he thought I was joking) and then I still couldn't remember the name of the place, only the # and street, I haven't been able to remember routes to places I used to drive... I'll find myself sitting at a light not sure where to go, and making mistakes with our money because I forgot whether I did or didn't pay a bill (something I've never done, we have always had excellent credit). On Topamax I went from feeling like an attractive, successful, good mom,with a happy family... to constantly stressed, even by things I had previously enjoyed doing, and a completely depressed failure... but I had no migraines. I have now been weaning off the Topamax for a few days. I was playing phone tag with my neurologist... so due to the urgency of the problem I took myself down to 100 mg a day. I have since spoken with my neurologist and I am going off of it completely... by the way don't ever discontinue this med without ramping off of it, doing so can cause a seizure. I am unbelievably grateful that I put 2 and 2 together the weekend I had time to myself and got lost going to the party and I already feel more awake, less tearful and depressed... I know that things will be ok anyway. I hope that anyone reading this who is having memory or emotional issues on Topamax and just brushing them aside (because they don't want to risk going back to the migraines or whatever), will get off this med. Please realize that this med could have cost me, my kids and my husband a lot more than my migraines ever will. I have never experienced depression before Topamax, and I can't say that I'm completely back to myself yet, but I hope that when I am off this med I will find normal again, and I pray it will be without migraines, but I know that I wouldn't wish these past few months that I've put myself and my family through on anyone. Now, I need to go take a shower :) , then I'm going to my neurologist to pick up some 25 mg samples to continue ramping off! Good luck to you all!

The doctors haven't been able to determine if I had a stroke or drug related (symptoms- if the slurred speech, facial palsy, memory problems, problems with working memory, and a 30+ drop in IQ points, weakness right hand). I had an open MRI and nothing was abnormal. They took me off the topamax and there has been no change and put me on verapamil sr. Trust me the verapamil is horrible as cause anxiety, insomnia, increase in appetite and congestive heart failure. At this point, the only thing that the topamax is responsible for was a decrease in appetite ( Yup, I had a stroke). I can't wait to get back on the topamax.

wow!
it sounds like everybody hates topamax from all the posts that i read... although i didnt read them all...

anyway, at first i had the memory loss thing but it seems to be ok now. i think i always had memory problems though, but it did get worse for the first couple months on topamax and then a little worse when my doc upped my dose. although now i think that my body may have gotten used to it, bc i feel a bit back to normal with my memory.

i also have the leg tingling. mainly i notice something like a slight throbbing if i put my foot down too suddenly, but it doesnt actually hurt. i notice the actual tingling in my legs/feet when i drink though, but only when i drink.

what else? oh, the hair loss. ALTHOUGH, this could also be from my dying my hair a lot... bc i have always had a hair loss problem, but i think the topamax accelerated it.

however, these side effects arent enough for me to get off the drug until my doc thinks so. i had migraines every week or more. horrible ones where i had to stop what i was doing and lie down. i missed a lot of school , missed a lot of work... sometimes they would last for more than a day. i needed help. now i only get migraines during that time of the month, and several docs have said its bc of the lack of estrogen... even when i get those migraines i only get the symptoms , not the pain. i dont even have to take anything. i have my life back... haha, i sound like a lifetime story or a commercial. anyway, i <3 my topamax and im just going to start taking a biotin supplement to prevent hair loss until i can get off this drug when it is time.

my side effects : - Tingling hands and feet which are going away now, memory problems, word finding difficulties, speech problems, visual hallucinations. Mine ball of light flashing, red/orange colour lasting seconds, then also a white out line of doors or bjects or my body. ( even neurologist's are not aware of these visual problems and because they don't fit into the normal visual aura pattern they may think you are made. The drug company need to put out a visual hallucinatinatinations as a noted side effect. I'm taking Topamax 50mg twice a day for migraine for the last for months. It is only just now controling the migraine. I have lost 12lbs in weight.

I have been taking topomax 100mg twice a day for one year. I began taking it for seizures and headaches. I weaned myself off of it in December feeling that it was unnecessary being that I've always been on lamictal as a monotherapy treatment for my seizures and that the dizziness, memory problems and tingly feelings were not worth it. Now the ten pounds that I originally lost and kept off for all this time has came back on and all the while I have been exercising 1 1/2hrs a day (which is new to me) and it isn't helping. I am back at my normal weight of 123 whereas I was happy to be 113 while on the drug. I am going to begin taking it again to see what happens... I don't experience the symptoms I spoke of before-unless I take too much because my memory is bad.

I have been on Topamax for 6 years and the side effects that I have experienced have been dry eyes, dry mouth, muscle/joint aches, chest pain, memory problems, body odor, fluid retention, weight GAIN (not loss), head aches, mood swings, hallucinations, blurred vision especially at night, tingling/burning of the extremities, and the constant feeling of never being able to get warm. I was on 400mg twice a day, and since the hallucinations, I have been cut back to 100 mg twice a day. My headaches are worse, and I am now experiencing hair loss and hair breakage.

Hi all: My wife has been having problems for about a year and when we started talking about them with our counselor, I realized that the problems began the same time she started taking Topamax.
She takes 100mg a day, (4, 25mg pills every night before bed)
Thinking back and thinking currently, she has had memory problems, problems holding objects, NO SEX drive, has had problems thinking clearly, moody and is mad at me a lot. This has all lead to problems in our marriage.
I'm trying to see if these side effects are common!
I have read some posting from others that show some or all of these sypmtoms occurring in themselves or their loved ones.
I love my wife greatly and have mentioned not taking these pills anymore, but she has resisted. I'm hopeful with some research and some more first hand accounts, that I can convince her to give this a try and possibly save our marriage.

Thanks to any and all who can help.

I have been taking 100mg of Topamax daily for 9 months now. At first I noticed being confused, and slight memory problems, but now I am having serious health issues. I have extreme pain in my legs, most joints, middle and upper respitory pain(mostly at night), and just don't feel well. 6 months ago I was running half marathons, now I can barely exercise for 30 minutes a day. My Dr.'s have no idea whats going on, but tell me that Topamax is not the problem. I don't think they know what their talking about.

Keith

I had to laugh reading some of these.

I have been on Topamax for about a year @250mg daily. I have actually gained weight over this last year. I think it might have to do with other medication I am on, and the birth control pills. And The Memory Thing, oh my goodness... I swear I became more stupid. I have forgotten basic math and I have a degree in Finance. I have a hard time remembering basic times tables!!

And oh I hate not finding the right words. It is irritating, when you know what you want to say, it is like right there on the tip of your tounge and you just plain cannot get your brain to get the mouth to say it.

I do have a question for those who have been on it a long time? Anytime the medication level was changed I have notice an increse in sympotms and then they would taper off. It does not matter if the meds were being increased or decreased, there would always be more speech and memory problems. Anyone else have more issues when the dosage is changed? Also, has anyone else had weight gain?