Juvenile Atypical Absence Epilepsy

[Evan99]

Hi,
My daughter was diagnosed 15 months ago with atypical absence epilepsy. We are on our third medication and still have seen very little improvement. She could not tolerate ethosuximide. We then tried frisiu, which worked for about 4 weeks. Lamictal was then used with frisium but this did not control the seizures. We recently started epilim at a low dose to counteract any side effects. I haven't seen much improvement so far and we started the therapeutic dose a day ago . When can we expect to see an improvement? Has anyone had an experience similar to ours. She has brief head nods but also sometimes has jerk like movements when they occur. They really tire her out. Should could have up to 40 in a row. They mainly happen first thing in the morning and also when she eats. She is 13 and they seem to get worse around her period. Has anyone had an experience of this? I am beginning to think we will never get these under control.

Ds is on epilim. It took a good 6 weeks for us to see it's effect. Side effects weren't great but have settled overtime. For the most part it works well for him with the occasional dose increase when needed. He still has the occasional episode but it's not constant like it was. It's stopped the really bad episodes which could last a few minutes and he would come out of them very confused and often aggressive.

Thanks for that, it’s really helpful to know it took 6 weeks to see its effect. My daughter has been having them constantly over the past few months, I’m really hoping the epilim will take effect. Thanks again.