TOPAMAX Reviews (TOPIRAMATE)Average Rating: 3.0 (1824 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare TOPAMAX with similar:
Type: Rx Drug
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Results are sorted by length of time drug was taken longest to shortest. Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.) Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 |
RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR TOPAMAX | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
1 | Headaches | tingling, buzzing sensation in my head. feelings of doom. horrible waves of nausea that lasted for 5 days when I discontinued. | Absolute worst medication I have taken in my life will never take again | F | 48 | 4 weeks | 2/16/2007 | 1 | Seizures | Shocking Pains that started in my head and ran through my entire body, dizzyness, paranoia, aniety, and panic attacks. | It was the worst experience I have ever had with a medication. | M | 25 | 4 weeks | 1/19/2005 | 1 | migraines | Being on Tomapax was the worse experience of my life. I have had migraines since I was a kid and I take Excedrin for migraines. I went to a neurologist because the Excedrin just wasn’t helping anymore. He put me on the Crazy Pills! This medicine affects your temporal lobes and if you have completely healthy temporal lobes this medication can have a nasty effect. Let me go through the complete side effects list and tell you what I went through. Here is what I experienced abnormal coordination, agitation, anxiety, appetite loss, confusion, depression, difficulty with concentration, difficulty with memory, dizziness, drowsiness, fatigue, language problems, leg pain, loss of coordination, mood problems, nausea, nervousness, slowing of movements, speech problems, tingling or burning sensations, weakness, aggressiveness, dry mouth, exaggerated sense of well being, changes in taste, feelings of unreality, heart palpitations, increased sweating, hyperactivity, loss of consciousness, low | My suggestion to everyone who wants to take this medicine try it for 1-2 weeks and then checkout the side effects list. If you look at the list before hand you could drive yourself crazy thinking you have every symptom on the page. Do not take this drug till you read the full side effect list. THIS LIST IS NOT ON THE TOPAMAX WEBSITE THEY DO NOT DISCLOSE ALL SIDE EFFECTS. GO ONLINE AND FIND ONE AND YOU'LL KNOW WHY THEY DON'T DISCLOSE THIS IMPORTANT INFORMATION. You will be surprised about what you find about this drug. http://www.migraines.org/treatment/protpmax.htm Above is a link that you should go to. I find it quite funny how the worst ratings of this medicine are at the very bottom of the website. They should be placed on the very top. This drug can be dangerous. I hope the people at Johnson & Johnson which own Topamax monitor this website. Maybe they should think about adding full side effects list after my posting. | F | 21 | 4 weeks | 11/28/2005 | 1 | Migraines | Appetite loss and weight loss (15 pounds in three weeks), facial Bell's palsy, twitching, extreme memory loss, confusion, sleeplessness, vocabulary loss, depression, nausea, apnea. | After the facial Bell's palsy began, I went back to the doctor, who removed me from the medication immediately. The symptoms persisted for about five days afterward, during which time I visited an emergency room once because of persistent apnea and twitching. The doctor did not believe any of my story about the medication; he said that it was a harmless drug. Now, I am actually too afraid of medication to try anything else--first, for fear of the drug itself, second for fear of a disbelieving doctor. | F | 49 | 4 weeks | 9/4/2006 | 1 | Chronic Daily Headache/Migraine | First no side effects at all but started at 12.5 mg. Titrated to 37.5 slowly and that's when the hell started. This drug dried me out completely; each and every body part inside and out! Lungs, nose, mouth, tongue, throat. It was awful. No amount of water (and let me tell you I drank copious amounts, round the clock) could hydrate my body. I've never experienced anything like it. Also horrible insomnia. Night after night without any sleep whatsoever. I did a lot of research before I took the drug but couldn't take the headaches any longer. After being on Topamax for a short period of time, I'll take the headaches over the side effects produced by this poison. It was also very frustrating when my neurologist insisted that the extreme dehydration and insomnia were not reported while on Topamax. A simple search on drugs.com come up with these side effects immediately. If you spend any time googling the drug you will find report after report of patients complaining of these such symptoms. Makes you wonder if the doctors are even paying attention... | F | 52 | 4 weeks 37.5 mg | 1/8/2015 | 5 | Migraines - DAILY AND SEVERE | tingling in extremities and slight numbness in lips. some difficulty in word-finding on occassion. was only sleepy in beginning. | I'm like the cheating girlfriend returning to the faithful boyfriend. I used this drug once before and it worked, I just didn't like the tingling. My toes -- especially my big toe -- would literally go purple when it tingled and it would be like pins poking me. So, I thought the grass would be greener elsewhere. Plus, it gave me a sweet tooth (no weight loss here!). So, I went to a neuro and had bunches of tests and tried at least 3 other drugs (the ones I can remember: Nortriptyline -- caused my hair to fall out, Zonegran -- caused deep muscle and joint pain, and Lamictal -- caused double/blurry vision so bad I had to go to the eye doctor b/c I thought I was going blind!) After all of those horrible experiences AND having to be hospitalized for rebounds from OTCs, I decided some tingling and minor cognitive difficulty was the lesser of the evils. Not too painful and I know I'm not stupid. So I'm back. I've gone from level 9-10 migraines (frontal, cluster, sinus, you name them) every single day to tiny, nagging headaches maybe every other day. And I've only been back on less than 3 weeks. Time will tell if any of the other side effects creep up this time. By the way, love the pp who said | F | 31 | 3 weeks | 8/25/2005 | 5 | Severe Migraines | None so far - other than excessive crying - not sure if this is a side effect! | Life pre topomax was categorized as "time between headaches". I rarely went for more that 48 hours without a severe migraine. After years on Fiorinal the rebounds were killing me. Tried everything else, from acupuncture and TENS to Imitrex, nothing helped. 30 years of this was enough. My Neurologist took me off Fiorinal - 3 weeks of total hell, and put me on Topomax. 12.5mg to 25 now on 50 after 3 weeks, with goal of 100mg. Headaches are wayyyyyy improved (except for the one I have right now due to that lovely glass of red wine I gave in to last night)BUT I have noticed that over the last 3 days, since I've gone up to 50mg, I AM CRYING AT THE DROP OF A HAT! I mean sobbing - TV commercials, thoughts of my daughter going to college, Grey's Anatomy, you name it, I'm crying. HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD THIS SIDE EFFECT??? Or should I talk to my shrink :)?? | F | 44 | 3 weeks | 1/28/2007 | 5 | SEVERY EVERY DAY MIGRAINE | F | 40 | 3 weeks 50 1X day | 2/28/2011 Patient History | 5 | Bipolar II, GAD,PAD | Slight occasional tingles - much like my Multiple Sclerosis tingles, slight "off" taste of certain foods - nothing bad enough at 50 mg a day to complain of at all. | I am also taking Remeron and Abilify, so I don't know exactly how much effect the Topomax is having on my mood disorder, but I do know that I haven't felt this good in years! I feel like I have my emotions back but they are great. The best part is that I have lost 7 lbs so far and have no appetite. I feel the best I have in a long while. | F | 43 | 3 weeks | 6/29/2007 | 5 | Epilepsy | Mild and Intermittent Headache, Some occasional tingling in feet | For me, Topamax has been a WONDER DRUG. I have been on Depakote, Tegretol, Lamictal, Trileptal, Klonopin, and Gabitril and this is the first drug that actually WORKED! I have a mixed type of epilepsy, with Grand mal seizures, Absence ("petit mal") and myoclonic seizures. I have not had a single grand mal seizure since starting it, and my absence and myoclonic seizures are practically gone..my neurologist and I are extremely satisfied at my 100MG BID and will eventually increase to 200MG. | M | 16 | 3 weeks | 10/6/2002 | 5 | migrane/vertigo | bleeding and drowsiness for the first week | I feel GREAT, I wasn't sure at first about the drowsiness because I am a single mother and working and going to school full time really concerned me but after the first week it's gone and I have never felt better. No more headaches and no more dizzy spells that I was getting real bad and this drug seems to my a miracle drug and my Dr. started me on 25mg and we have had to only up the dosage to 50mg so far, I have only been on 3 weeks as of now and loving it, I just can not express how great and back normal I feel. | F | 33 | 3 weeks | 4/18/2005 | 5 | Complex Migraine Syndrome | Brief tingling in hands / feet - soda tastes somewaht flat, but certainly tolerable. | It took a year, a very long difficult year, for my neurologist to come to the diagnosis of complex migraine syndrome, partly because headaches / migraines were the least of my complaints. I had twitching, numbness and tingling ALL over my body - literally from the top of my head to the tips of my toes, although the body part(s) affected varied day to day. There was also a feeling of tightness around my limbs and / or my face. Major muscles would twitch uncontrollably and then be sore for days. I had vertigo and nausea. I had hand tremors. I had hand, foot and leg “twitches”. I was always tired. The scariest symptom was the leg weakness. And because of all of this I have gained a significant amount of weight. Then came Topamax. Here I am, a mere 3 weeks later and I would say I am 85 - 90% symptom free. I started on 25 mg and increased it to 50mg after a week. My neurologist did give me the option of increasing in again if I’d like but why chance increasing the side e | F | 35 | 3 weeks | 2/20/2006 | 4 | chronic headaches | rapid heart rate, tingling tongue when eating, fatigue, depression early on (possibly due to transition from neurontin), mild weight loss | It has reduced occurrence of headaches. So far I haven't noticed any pronounced trouble with concentration and memory. | F | 32 | 3 weeks | 4/22/2005 | 4 | chronic migraines | Had 4-5 migraines a week, and after starting topamax at 25 mg's I've never had another one. At 50 mg's was extreamly tired most of the time. Now at 75 mg's, fatigue has gone away, but now have intense mood swings and anxiety, most of the day. (Didn't have either before starting medication). During the increase I have had almost no appetite, and will sometimes confuse words. I Start 100 mg's tomarrow, and I'm hoping the mood swings and anxiety will subside, because that's my only problem, with the medication. | F | 16 | 3 weeks | 4/19/2007 | 4 | migraines | stomach pains no appetite at all not sleeping real well at night either. only able to drink anything just h2o | any one else out their experience the stomach pains. I have only been on it for this is my 3rd week were i up my dosage one 5 mg in am and 2 25 mg in evening and next week to finalize 100 mg total. will the no hunger and stomach pains go away. i am not eating at all just posicles and some fruit | F | 40 | 3 weeks | 2/22/2005 | 4 | frequent migraines, chronic pain | no side effects, yet--hoping for weight loss, though; do have decreased appetite | I feel better than I have in two years. My migraines are much less frequent, and my muscle, joint, and bone pain are LOTS better. I've been on it for almost three weeks, and will increase the dosage next week. I'm taking it with MS ER 15mg. | F | 35 | 3 weeks | 5/4/2007 | 4 | daily migraines | occasional tingly hands/lips, beverages have diff. taste, i had trouble sleeping, but it seems to be getting better as time is going on. | i have to say i fought taking this drug for a very long time because of friends who have had bad exp.(hair loss, sexual side effects) on it, and i've followed this board for a long time, and quite frankly, it scared the crap out of me! but i'm at wits end, fighting migraines for 10+years, and i'm tired. decided to go for it, so far on the lower dose it's not so bad, it's helping so far and i feel good. seems the higher the dose, the worse the side effects(?). anyways, since i've used this board for reviews for so long, figured i might as well jump in for once! i'll get back to it as things progress and let you know how it's going! | F | 38 | 3 weeks 50 mg 1X day | 9/4/2011 | 4 | migranes | slight nausea the first 2 weeks, soda pop & beer tastes like crap (at first, I kept checking the expiration dates thinking it was spoiled). Cognitive response much slower,..I realize it at the moment but can't change it (very frustrating). I get hungry but things don't taste the same or I just don't feel like eating. | So far, has significantly reduced my migraines but I've only been on it for about 3 weeks (but then I have about 2-3 migraines a weeks before I started). I've had 2 slight headaches since I started taking it. The first time, I didn't take my other meds to see what would happen. The 2nd time, I took one of my other meds (midrin) and it knocked out the migraine entirely. That usually doesn't happen. | F | 42 | 3 weeks | 10/23/2005 | 4 | depression/mood stabilization | severe tingling in feet, especially heels, when driving, sitting, and/or sleeping; decreased appetite; weight loss; difficulty retrieving names or previously known information (this is particularly devastating, as I am a teacher). | Despite the side effects, which have affected my quality of life, this drug lifted me out of my hopelessness and brought be back to feeling stable and able and eager to function in my life. | F | 24 | 3 weeks | 8/19/2009 | 3 | Bipolar | Loss of appetite, tingling tongue and feet, tight stomach, gas | It appears I am one of the few males taking this med and of the few who are taking for mood disorder. The med is very new for me. I am now on 50 mg, nightly. My mood has been swinging up and down since I started the med (not good), so cannot give it a 4 yet. It could be because I am titrating down from a high dose of Risperidal and Lamictal. I can feel why this is a med you have to go up slowly on. The side effects hit you pretty quick. The loss of appetite started by day three and I was only on 25 mg. I do appreciate a medication that has taken away the zombie sugar cravings! Now seeing a box of Cap'n Crunch turns my stomach! :) I am taking a multi-vitamin, and B-complex hoping to ameliorate the cognitive disruption (however as I write this I am using the spell check. LOL). Email me if you want to know more. I have a lot of hope in this med. It would be nice to be in control of my body AND my mind, at the same time, (it has been a long time since). | M | 45 | 3 weeks | 1/21/2010 |