weight gain

[Padmeister]

Being on Lamotrigine (Lamictal) is most likely to cause weight gain. This is for epilepsy and given the factual brain damage I have its also to treat bipolar disorder, so I now have to be concerned with impulses and the additional effects of medication, this combined with my body not being able to process sugars and fats I think I am doomed to expand beyond belief, as if I don't have enough to be worried about an extra weight problem becomes a concern. I think I will have to eat like a vegetarian on a diet.

[steve55]

padmeister i was put on epilim also for epilepsy, but for me it was to control my aggression and mood swing..................................one thing the gp neglected to tell me was about the weight gain.

despite eating a healthy diet i have banged on the pounds, i wont tell you how many because we re all different and i was doing weights 3 to 4 times a week depending on my training pattern before my brain injury.

[Davebe]

I must be the lucky one. I take 1gm of Epilim and 75mg of Lamotrigine twice daily for epilepsy but I am still around the same weight as when I left the army in 1978. Could it be another medication that you take? I'm not one to use sugar, but fats, meat, cheese, and real butter is in my permanent diet. ( I hope my cardiologist doesn't read that). Sorry if that tormented you, as with other things it must be hard to lose weight, but you can do it. Good luck. Dave

[Calrich]

These meds are well known for increasing your weight the only epilepsy meds for helping you loose weight are topirimate x

[Padmeister in reply to Calrich]

its just because I was referred by my gp as I still have minor seizures and now on 200mg twice a day my consultant wrote to my gp and said about my weight. I thought nothing of it as I am a wheelchair user and still eat the same thing as once I did.I had my flu jab and my gp asked to see me, she explained this side effect of my meds. She also said it might not improve as 600mg total is the highest dose on this. I said it bothers me not as once I was fit, as a professional referee and soldier in the TA before my motorcycle RTC and the diffuse axonal brain damage I have. Thanks for this advise and whatever time I have on this planet left, I want to enjoy in my limited capacity and reclaim my input into the tax and national insurance I paid as a motor vehicle engineer and MOT tester. So like the football chant "you fat b...ard" I am fulfilling my destiny and proving them correct.

[Calrich in reply to Padmeister]

Please can I ask how long ago you had your rta, my daughter had an rta in January this year and has a diffuse axonal brain injury, she has been out of hospital 3 months x

[Padmeister]

well my RTC was in July 2002, I spent 2 years in hospital and then came rehab, the damage to my brain is extensive as it includes both frontal lobes, right hemisphere, corpus callosum, brain stem (pons area), bilateral hippocampal atrophy. These effects has left me with a visual defect Hemianopsia or hemianopia ( unsure of spelling) which is a visual field loss on the left side of the vertical midline, in both eyes, other factors to long to mention here is my use of a wheelchair and a 24 hour live in carer. I have epilepsy linked to respiration following a 12 week coma with complications like left lung upper and lower pneumonia and webbing in my trachea and my breathing intake and out, the partial loss of taste and smell, sexual dysfunction, anger issues, intellectual dysfunction. I have more albeit I cannot recall and that information is not stored on my laptop. Neural and synaptic pathways before and after due to axons is far too complicated to describe from a laymen's position as I do not have a Doctorate, things now in concentration have me confused and the neural activity has overloaded me. I hope this helps and does not cause you concern, I have raised ICP and many s subdural haematoma's and I am at a loss to define the other aspects of my brain damage as too many lesions have me this way.

[steve55]

padmeister when i wrote my reply, i had been on 1000mg twice a day.