Topamax-Side Effects-Discontinue?

Waiting to hear from dr. to see where he is wanting to go with this. My daughter (13 yrs) started on Topamax Jan 10th @ 15mg. Every 2 weeks, we increased by 15mg until she took 75mg for one week. At this point I told dr. she was more frustrated with remembering, had been nauseous since just before the 60mg dose (kept going to see if that side effect would go away), wondered if it was interfering with sleep and also maybe making her “down” a little. I was instructed to reduce dose back to 60mg for 2 weeks and see if her memory improved (the only side effect he was concerned with); if not, reduce down to 45mg for 2 weeks. As the Topamax hasn’t helped her 24/7 dizziness at all, I’m wondering why she would keep taking it? Isn’t 45mg too low to have any benefit, especially as she got up to 75mg without any benefit? I feel as if it’s time to stop this and move on to try something else. This is the 2nd med. she’s tried after cyproheptadine (Periactin) didn’t do anything. Would welcome your comments (while I’m waiting for the doctor’s) - is there something I don’t know about this?

Hi Anne,

Your daughter could be very sensitive to the meds- I think a lot of us are.

For me at least, I went up on Topamax very slowly. 25mg for about 3 months I think, then 50mg for about a year, before moving on to 75mg!

She could see less side effects by going very slow… But then you want to see improvement within in a certain time frame. (I was already seeing improvement by being on a combination of that plus nortriptyline…) It’s hard.

Good luck x