Posted by theo on October 2, 2004, at 11:26:25
In reply to Keppra---anyone tried as a mood stablizer???theo, posted by elainen on October 2, 2004, at 0:24:03
Here's my experience. I started Keppra at 250mg at night for 4 days, then took 500mg for 4 nights, then added 250mg in the morning plus 500mg at night. Now I'm at 750mg total but take 250mg 3 times daily, 7:00am, 3:00pm and 10:00pm.
The first 4 days I was actually sleepy, then it was like an awakening of my brain and I felt great. Keppra clears your mind and you can stablize with dosage increases within about 4-5 days. For anxiety, it doesn't make you brain dead like Neurontin (for me at least) and has zero side effects. For me it kills the "fear" feeling of anxiety. You can easily experiment with the dosage with this med without feeling like crap except maybe a mild headache for 2-3 days when you increase or decrease the dose.
I did had a negative experience when I tried to take 500mg twice daily as the prescribing info states. The half life is 6-8 hours and in reality should be prescribed 3 times daily in my opinion.
Back to my negative experience. When I was at 250mg 3 times daily, my pdoc told me to go to 500mg twice daily and add 250mg midday if needed. What happened was the first morning I took 500mg, I felt aggitated and took another 250mg around noon. I litterally wanted to run someone off of the road or knock someones head off. I've only been in 2 fights in my life and knew this was totally out of character for me and that I moved up in dose to quick. I could probably go up from where I am now (250mg 3 times daily) but more is not always better.
I was prescribed the 500mg pills and they break in half easily. I don't know how you started Keppra dosing wise but the 250mg increase for 4 days until you reach a comfortable dose is the way to go. 250mg can make or break you with this med, but you have complete control over it because it stabilizes within about 2-4 days when playing with the dose. The prescribing info says you can take 500mg twice daily your first dose and if I would have tried that, you would have probably seen me on CNN running cars off of the road.
Again, since there is zero withdrawal, at least for me, I would try taking 250mg doses to titrate up and whatever your daily target dose is, divide it into 3 times daily versus 2 times daily.
Check with your doc of course, but I wouldn't give up yet because the ease of dosing with this med is great and if it weren't for my pdoc telling me to play with the dose, I wouldn't be taking it now and it has been the best anxiety, manic reducer I've taken. It's not an antideppressant but does have mood lifting qualities. It also doesn't poop out like Neurontin to where you are having to always increase the dose. Once you find your target dose, it doesn't poop out like other meds.
I'm SSRI free and the other med I'm taking with Keppra is Lamictal (125mg at bedtime) and the two work well together.
Again, I think you mentioned you saw the write up on Keppra at the crazy meds web site and whoever wrote that pretty much hit the nail on the head in their description.
poster:theo
thread:397947
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041002/msgs/398257.html