epilim or zarontin or lamictal?

[kissingfrogs]

I have a week in which to choose which of these to use to medicate dd1 (absence seizures). The doctor has left the decision up to me so it's my call.
All have potentially awful side-effects but dd1s absences are having a bad effect on her so it's a case of damned if I do/damned if I dont when it comes to meds.
How am I, with no knowledge of epilepsy or pharmaceuticals, supposed to decide which med would be most suitable for my child? Pick the one that may make her fat, bald and deaf, or the one linked to suicidal thoughts?
I know it's a case of trial & error to find the right med, but I'm so stressed about this.

Riven it's one of the problems with the 'medical' model isn't it, the hc professionals often just don't think about how the drugs affect all the other things in your life, as long as they remove the one symptom the doc is looking at - except it seems in your dd's case it didn't even do that.

I am also seeing a gastroenterologist re ds2's incontinence and although I expressed my theory that this might also be linked to the AEDs he just said 'neither of those drugs have been linked to constipation or diarrhoea' and continued to treat ds2 in the normal way.

glad to hear fatzak that things are good at the moment.

Epilim is not a drug that should be perscribed to girls. I am a 37 year old on Epilim, now on Epilim crono, I have been on this since I was 14. Epilim gives major birth defects in unborn babies. It is possible to have babies on this but only under medical supervision. This drug should never be prescribed to girls who will grow up to have children. The patient will remain on this for a long time and there body will become used to it and it is difficult to change drugs without being 100% that a person will not have seizers.

Please do not listen to any doctor who says they will prescribe this, there is a massive court case in London that has been going on for 4 years against the company that make it. The children born to to mothers on this drug are suing the company. If you are in dout a group called the organisation for anti convulsant syndrome will have loads of advise on the babies born to mothers on this drug.

I now have a 18 month old who has issues, please before giving your daughter this drug think of her maybe wanting to have children in 10 or 15 years time, as this will cause her allot of worry.

I was initially put on epilim in the hospital but by the time I saw the consultant for an official dx he put me on lamotrigine (lamictal) because he said epilim shouldn't be used for women of child bearing age

wasn't on epilim very long so didn't notice the side effects if there were any.

been on lamictal now for almost 10 years, do find that I tend to be more scatty than I was before and sometimes just can't get my tongue on the right word as quickly as I used to, I have always wondered in the back of my mind if it might be the tablets but then I suppose they are designed to slow down brain activity so I should expect some cerebral sharpness to go in the process.

Maybe I am just getting old.