Felbamate for Epilepsy User Reviews

• yet...
• October 12, 2013

Felbamate "Started taking Felbatol in October 1995. Until then, had been on several medications, nothing would stop my seizures, not even a combination of medicines. By April 1996, I was almost seizure-free. For over 17 years, I have been seizure-free. No one, unless they have experienced this, can imagine the change in all of our lives."

• Anonymous
• July 3, 2011

Felbamate "Caused severe insomnia for the first two weeks, which went away. No other side effects. Does require blood tests. Now 8 weeks seizure-free, down from 20-25 a month of complex partials and grand mal. A miracle, as long as you understand and accept the potential serious side effects."

• eva...
• October 20, 2015

"Made me incredibly ill for the first couple of weeks. Nothing else worked. But this did. No more grand mal seizures. Seizure-free, so long as I take the prescribed dose. There is the risk [blood tests a must for safety], and I take the max dose, so I take 6 600 mg tablets a day, and I am only 26/female, so that can be annoying, but you got to do what you got to do. I also take vitamin supplements."

• Pea...
• Taken for 1 to 2 years
• April 16, 2019

Felbamate "I’ve been on 14 different medications to try and help control my seizures. I have refractory juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, and Felbatol is the only medication that has nearly given me my life back. I would typically have anywhere from 30 to 80 seizures a day (myoclonic and absence), and this brought it down to around 10 to 15 a day in total. My only complaints are the insomnia (which can be controlled with a very large dose of melatonin), loss of appetite, and the possible risk of life-threatening side effects. The weight loss does stop after a while if you experience it."

• ecl...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• October 19, 2018

"Took 1 pill, and after about 2 hours, I went from being my normal happy self to suddenly feeling like I wanted to end my life. It terrified me! I called everyone I knew just to make sure I had people to check in on me in case I didn't make it through this to make sure my pets had plenty of care! I didn't care at all what happened to me, but my pets had to be safe. The only good thing I take from that was at least I still had compassion for other living creatures, and I still cared for my babies. I've been looking around for similar side effects and have only found a few similar experiences, so my situation seems rare. But if any of you take this and read this review, do more than I did. Get someplace where you're around people, preferably loved ones, and tell them your situation. I'm sure there are a lot of things you can do. I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else. If it does, I hope you read this or another review like it so you know you will get through this and get someone around you."

• Anonymous
• May 12, 2010

"I have been taking Felbamate since November 1990, when I was in the Phase III investigational study. I have been completely seizure-free since April 1991. Although there have been serious side effects associated with this drug, I have not experienced any. My doctor has ordered that I have an ALT, AST, and CBC every 6 weeks. I also periodically have a B12 blood test. From what I understand, I am in a small percentage of those patients who can tolerate this drug without the reported serious side effects. Therefore, I would recommend that the patient be very cautious before beginning treatment. This drug has changed my life completely."

• Rox...
• February 3, 2017

"So far, it's been working well, and I've been seizure-free. My last medication was Depakote, and that just didn't work at all, I was having seizures at least once a week. Unfortunately for me, I experienced extreme side effects with felbamate, such as insomnia, nausea, weight loss (which I don't mind too much), and weakness in the muscles. At first, the drug kept me in a really surreal state of mind the first two months I was on it. I was at the highest dose, and my doctor decided to lower it to help with the nausea and surrealism. Even after that, food just doesn't look appetizing. It helped with the nausea, but the surrealism comes around every now and then. So the drug itself is great, but the side effects are just very extreme."

• ste...
• Taken for 1 to 2 years
• July 17, 2016

Felbamate "Ineffective med that resulted in extreme weight loss and made cognition practically impossible, so I did not pass my oral exam before, nor was I even able to understand the questions my graduate committee members were asking. I got off of it at that point, then went from a 28" waist back to a 32"."

• cra...
• January 14, 2011

Felbamate "Stopped my seizures so far, and I have never felt better."

• bjm...
• June 2, 2009

Felbamate "Paresthesia in hands and feet, tremors."

• Anonymous
• Taken for 1 to 2 years
• February 27, 2022

"I have been seizure-free on felbamate. I had insomnia to begin with, but it went away. I get hiccups, which have not gone away. I will live with hiccups, as it's better than seizures!"