I've been having awful Trigeminal Neuropathic pain and recently visited with Drs. Lad and Liedky at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC (after my drs here at KU Med Center in Kansas City were at the end of their ideas). Dr Liedky has done a lot of research on facial pain and wanted to start me on Vimpat and ramp down off of the Trileptal I've been on that has seriously lowered my sodium count. Has anyone else tried Vimpat? If so, did it help and were the side effects bad? Thanks so much!
HI Janet..my doc just suggested vimpat. Interesting.
I'm ramping up on the Vimpat and ramping down on the Trileptal. For me, changing the anti-seizure meds like that comes with that slow motion feeling and lots of nausea, but I'm an old pro at that and know that it will go away. I'll let you know how it's working once I get to full dosage. He said that 50 mg of the Vimpat is ~ equivalent to 300mg of the Trileptal, but that the Vimpat is stronger. I had issues with the Trileptal dropping my sodium super low, and the Vimpat is not as prone to doing that.
I am a huge fan of Vimpat. It's the only thing that stops the pain cold for me, and works within minutes.
I generally have few side effects to meds -- the only side effect I've noticed (and not sure if it's from Vimpat or Neurontin) is deep sleepiness while commuting on a subway or train. That said, I've had to ramp up my Vimpat dosage pretty quickly in the past. I'd say it's not great for long-term use just because the dosage climbs quickly, but SO effective for quick pain relief.