Migraine Headaches Support Group

Topamax should be called dopamax or stupamax because of what it does to your cognitive skills. At 50 mg. I became brain stupid. I jokingly tell people I became the living version of every dumb blonde joke ever written. I could not think, I could not remember, I could not concentrate. I forgot my own childrens names, forgot my address, drove past my steet several times because I could not remember where I lived. Did not remember to do things and driving became very scary because it affected my reaction time - had several near miss accidents. I stopped the med 5 months ago (50 mg.) and my memory has NOT returned. My neurologist said there is a percentage of people who do get permanent cognitive damage from it. Be careful - its a scary med.

I sed to take Topomax. The great thing about it was that it totally got rid of my migraines. The bad thing was I lost too much weight and I had trouble sleeping. Maybe I was on too high of a dose , I don't know.

I take 200mg a day and was always told never to exceed that. I dont have any of the cognitive problems I've been reading about (DOPAmax) but my latest neuro has me taking the bulk of the dose at night (50mg AM and 150 PM) so that the bulk of the side effects are overnight rather than during the day. Maybe that actually works? The main concern I have - and I have friends and family on high alert - is for any mood and depression changes. I've found that Im ok on the Topamax alone but now when we add anything else in combination, Im super sensitive to mood changes (and that's putting it nicely ;)