topomax?

[RedTulipMom]

anyone here ever take topamax? any positive or negative opinions on it?

my bipolar son was on zyprexa and depakote for about a year and gained 100 lbs in a year..BOTH meds make you hungry from what i gather. Then they switched his zyprexa to abilify and his appetite decreased a little and he stopped gaining the 9-10lbs he had been. For the past 2 mos theres been no gain or loss. Now we talked to his pdoc monday night about whether we can get him off the depakote and onto a med that can help him get rid of some of this weight. He brought up topomax. he said it will help him not only maintain but start losing some of this weight. BUT..the downside is..it really isnt FDA approved for bipolar! Its approved for seizures and migraines i think. But supposedly it works for a good portion of people that are bipolar. So..anybody have anything to tell me before they change my son from the depakote to the topomax?

 

[broken4him]

I take Topamax. I was started on it when I first started on zprexa. I have not noticed any side effects nor have I noticed any benefits. But my pdoc as of yesterday increased the strength of my Topamax so maybe I will notice something.
Sorry, I was not much help.

 

[Alive again]

I have never taken that one, but know of many who have, incuding one of my best friends. Many of the antiseizure class of meds are not FDA approved for bipolar but are effective for bp, including the med I take.

FDA approval requires the manufacturer to choose to apply for that specification. When a drug is first approved they will seek the easier thing to document and prove and the most marketable action. Through use often other applications are found, but the drug company may not feel it is worth the time and money to get that approval. Just the way the system works. So the use of meds in "off label" is very common in medicine and particularly with anti-seizure meds and bp.

So for info this link should help for basic info about topamax from the manufacturer. There are also many websites that will review meds for use in bp. http://www.topamax.com/?&utm_source=ppc&utm_medium=ppc&utm_term=ppc&utm_campaign=ppc

Blessings and prayers!

 

[powerofprayer]

RedTulipMoon,
My 11 year old daughter was just taken off of Topamax (60mg twice a day) because in 5 weeks she developed drug-induced anorexia - she lost 19# in 5 weeks and she also developed cognitive deterioration and memory loss. Her neurologist & her psych both agreed that these were all negative side effects of the Topamax. Her grades at school went from straight A's to D'S in 4 weeks. This is significant. She was on Topamax for seizures but she has bipolar as well and as of last week was changed to Abilify & Depakote. I know she probably had worse case scenario but as a parent I would have wanted to know. Good luck & God bless. Feel free to pm me anytime.

Sandy