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        Cluster Headache Help and Support >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies >> Topamax
        
(Message started by: love2bamommy on Apr 16^th, 2007, 4:46pm)

Title: Topamax
Post by love2bamommy on Apr 16^th, 2007, 4:46pm

Today, I went to the doctor, and was prescribed Topamax..and i don't know anything about this.

Does anyone know anything about this? I know that its supposed to prevent them from coming, but i want to know if it works.

Title: Re: Topamax
Post by Gator on Apr 16^th, 2007, 5:33pm

There are lots of people here who have tried it. Like everything else, it works for some - not for others. The only way you will know is to try it.

Good luck.

Title: Re: Topamax
Post by Trooper on Apr 16^th, 2007, 9:54pm

I like to refer to it as Dopamax! I was on it a few years back and found it made me incredibly stupid! I would forget to do the most common and simple task.
(i.e. getting out of my car while the engine was still on and the vehicle not being in park.)

Best wishes, I hope it works better for you than it did for me.

Title: Re: Topamax
Post by Samiam on Apr 17^th, 2007, 9:03am

I tried this and for me it cause a lot more pressure in my head. Since my cycle only last about 6 weeks maybe a tad longer and I started this 4 weeks into my cycle I chose to stop it. I was only on it for a week and not up to a full dose but the pressure in the head was not something I wanted to deal with on top of the clusters. O2 was my saving grace this time. There is a women on the board named Barbara that takes this with much success but for me I didn't like what it did to me.

Sami

Title: Re: Topamax
Post by chrisw on Apr 17^th, 2007, 9:08am

Tried it, didnt help. Hope it helps you.

good luck,
chrisw

Title: Re: Topamax
Post by E-Double on Apr 17^th, 2007, 10:20am

No one should discount meds based on others for we are each different. Some repsond well to this and others like me have not. Here is my experience, however, we are all different and for some this is a medication that has been a saving grace......

Quote:

There is a reason that Topamax is known by many users as DOPEYMAX!!! In my profession it is very important it is for me to have my wits. I need to be quick, have keen observational skills and to always be lucid. Well, first came some very mild absent mindedness. This may not seem so bad because one would think that you can use memos or post its. The problem is when you forget where you put your post its. This rapidly increased to complete stupidity. I was literally dumb as a rock and beyond forgetful. This was all at relatively low dosage. I could not teach. I could not treat any of my clients. I could not decipher the procedures which I developed and knew like the back of my hand. I would walk into my house and not know where I was.Next comes depression. I got off of this as quick as I could. You can not come off quickly because if you do not already have siezures you might develope them. I spent the next couple of months trying to snap out of depression and recovering from dumb fuckness! I also had to rebuild my reputation a bit. It was a nightmare!!!!!!!

As you can see I didn't like it

Title: Re: Topamax
Post by Rosybabe on Apr 17^th, 2007, 4:28pm

HI, I will sugest to read some of the side effects of Topamax, one of them is that it can make the pill less effective , so be prepared for that ;)

Title: Re: Topamax
Post by swimchica623 on Apr 17^th, 2007, 4:36pm

aww, poor Topamax, getting the bad rap again, and yet no one is answering your question about how it works!
I'm not completely sure so I can't totally answer it, but it has something to do with the temporal lobe. Which also has something to do with CH. I think. Could be wrong though. But I think if you google it then you can find some more info.
I've been on it since October 2006. I've been doing pretty well. I started on 25mg and slooowly worked my way up to 150mg, I take it all at night. I noticed that I have worse memory side effects when I get it in split doses, or when I take it before bed then wake up 3 hours later (I am a college student after all, so sometimes I'll be up till 4am, take it then, then wake up at 7). Once when I did this, it was awful! I literally forgot how to parallel park, forgot where I sat in biology...it was way worse than the effects of just sleeping for 3 hours. So I think I must sleep through the worst of the memory side effects.
I've lost some weight since I've been on it, but that's due to some other stuff too...I had a bad bout of the flu and then literally coughed my butt off because I was so sick with asthma afterwards, in the hospital, and didn't eat much at all for a long time. I was also on depakote (ie BLOAT-A-KOTE) before starting this and I gained a LOT of weight, so part of the "weight loss" was returning to my normal weight after I got off depakote.
So..there you go. One point for Topamax...score!
I recommend getting your dr to prescribe that you take it all at once, at night, and that you increase VERRRRY slow. I've also heard that going over 200mg can actually make CH worse, so ask your dr if s/he knows this.
Good luck, hope it works for you!
Lisa

Title: Re: Topamax
Post by rossimft on Apr 23^rd, 2007, 12:23am

I started taking Topamax about 1 month before I expected my CH cycle to begin and at first I did have the foggy head type side effects and very drowsy, but I eventually adjusted to it. It seems that the Topamax had definitely taken a bit of the edge off of the intensity and frequency of the headaches, unfortunately I am still getting them, but this episode is by far the least severe I have had in years. I am thinking I can attribute it to the Topamax. Another kudo for Topamax is it does have a side effect of weight loss which I am ok with ;)

Title: Re: Topamax
Post by taraann on Apr 23^rd, 2007, 4:09am

I've tried just about every prevent under the sun but avoided topamax. Mainly for fear of the kidney warnings (my mom had a failing kidney and I get frequent kidney infections) I'm so DESPERATE that I just started the topa last week, I see my neurologist this upcoming week, and I will hopefully have something else set up waitng in the wings if the topa does prove to hurt my kidneys, not help, or suck totally. Right now I'm only on 25 mg once a night. So far not too bad of side affects.

I have been having this searing and i mean searing pain pain from my achiles (sp?) down to the heels of my feet if I sit or lay more than a few minutes and my muscles seem to just lock up tight unless I move around alot but I that could very well may be the steroids I'm on (I get sore on steroids every time but this is a bit beyond soreness). I haven't given up on it though cause the soreness also seems to be letting up bit by bit each passing day.

Can you keep me updated on your side affects and dosages as you taper up or whatnot?