I am not sure where to post this so excuse me if is in the wrong place. My Mother is 71 yrs. old, has been a prescription drug addict for most of my life (fifty years). She weighed 67 pounds when she had her first seizure, 6 weeks ago, she has had a total of four all together. Tests show no epilepsy or any reason for her to have them. I am wondering if taking so many Ultram, being so emanciated, living on Mountian Dew and Camel cigaretts could cause this. After the last Grand Mall seizure she is now in a home because she cannot stay by herself and myself and my husband work full time. She is on 600mg of Tegratol daily. could that dose have anything to do with her confusion? She knows everything and everyone but she can't stay ontask. I took her to a neuro and he said she did not have Alziemers and if she did have dementia it was the very earliest stage. I am helpless to know if she is going to come back around or not. Should we cut the Tegratol and see what happens. Thank you for any input.

Not sure if this will help you, but I can give you some insight on the drug.

Teg does not cause "mind fog" that I know of; or cause the persons mental abilities to be clouded, or confused. Atleast in that of an epileptic like myself. There are some medications that WILL cause symptoms like that. If a person is experiencing that, you have to ask the person to explain the symptoms and not to lead them in any manner. Let the patient explain the best they can what they feel or sense; and relay that to the Dr.

I was started out on 1400mg; have been on 1600mg (noon dose) and 2200mg (3x day regiment that I did NOT like). Doses mentioned were total daily amount I took. Currently I am on 1200/day.

Teg takes about 3 weeks for the body to adapt to the drug if I remember (or to adapt to adjustments for the levels to become stable).


As for adjusting; I do NOT recomend it unless you consult the Dr or the Dr sees the person. Adjusting medications is a very risky move.

I'll admit I did it on my own when My Dr had my dose above recomended dose and I let the meds have time to adjust; the symptoms of toxic levels did not go away. I knew how to adjust after all the years on the med, so I followed the procedure of reduction, including evaluating after time had lapsed after decreasing the dose. I DO NOT RECOMEND THIS. Like I said, this was my taking my health risk in my own hands, and I accepted that risk. BUT if the person is somebody else; DON'T. You do not want to be found at fault for not following the Dr's orders.

--Travis