Withdrawal from extended release AEDs

[Guest guest]

Hi

Your postings have been a daily source of encouragement and

information for us. Thank you! My daughter had her first grand mal

seizure when she turned 10 years old. After her second seizure, she

was placed on Phenobarbital. However, when that proved to be too

sedating, she was put on Tegretol, then Tegretol XR. She has complex

partial seizures, which occur without an aura, approximately 4 times a

year. Whenever she would have a seizure, the neurologist would up her

dose of Tegretol XR until he " maxed out " on that drug and

added Keppra to her regimine. Until I began reading your postings, it

had not occurred to me to question his judgment.

We changed neurologists recently. Although he asked what it was we

were hoping to achieve, he completely ignored my daughter's

statement that were hoping to reduce the amount of medicine so that

she could be on a monotherapy once again. The only thing he would

hear of was changing her dose of Tegretol XR to an equivalent dose of

Carbatrol. S0, she is now taking 600 MG Carbatrol [(1) 300 mg. tablet

twice a day] and 3000 mg Keppra [(3) 500 mg tablets twice a day].

She has taken to heart your suggestions on diet and vitamins, and now

wants to take the next step of at least reducing her medications. But

how is it possible to do this safely with these " extended

release " medications? The tablets are prescribed in high dosages, so

it's not as if we have the option of reducing her meds by 1 tablet a

day, or of splitting the tablets. It's a " Catch-22 " – the more

meds you take, the more you become dependent upon them, the harder and

more dangerous it is to withdraw. What a mess!

Any suggestions? We value all of your postings. Thank you all

again.

Judy Z