Hello everyone. I wrote a first post here 5 months ago: healthunlocked.com/epilepsy....... about my daughter's and my wife's epilepsies. I thought it would be useful to comment about my daughter's experiences with Keppra after 5 months of usage.
Initially she was put on 1000 mg daily but the side effects were intrusive - especially early in the day when she was at school. I got the neurologist to agree to a reduction to 750 mg by halving the morning dose and this seems to work fine.
I must say I'm pleasantly surprised at how well this drug works, considering how afraid I was at the start. The side effects are there (tiredness, slightly aggressive, sometimes depressed) but she seems to cope well with them and I would say they are acceptable considering that she has very little epileptic activity under telemetry.
Most important is that she herself believes in the effect of the drug and wants it to work. I think the type of side effect associated with Keppra is very susceptible to one's attitude to the drug - if you're afraid of it or sceptical, I think the side effects will manifest more readily.
Not to play down the real problems some people have with this drug. I've read enough to realize that for some people this is a catastrophic choice and should be avoided - but given that it does relatively little harm to the body compared with many of the alternatives - if it works then it's golden.
Alan
