Anyone on Topamax for bipolar?

[mopeymonique]

I'm curious if anyone is taking Topamax for bipolar?  I've read it helps with weight loss too.  I'm currently taking Zyprexa causing me to gain 45lbs, I want to ask my doctor if I can switch from Zyprexa to Topamax for my bipolar II.  I'd love any feedback on either drug and how it affected you.

[kissamiau]

Topamax does tend to cause weight loss, but trust me, this is not the way you want to lose weight.  Topamax (I was taking it for bipolar) first of all did nothing for my moods.  I was back in the hospital a few months after first being prescribed this, along with seroquel and ativan for panic and anxiety.  That's not what makes this medicine so undesirable though.  With each dose increase, I had numbness in my legs and arms.  This could continue for as long as 2 weeks after a dose increase.  The reason for the weight loss is because I just wouldn't eat.  Nothing sounded good, nothing tasted good, and I felt just generally unwell.  I can compare it to having the flu, but for a couple weeks after each dose increase.  (Dose increases happen frequently; due to it's list of side effects and how common some are, they can't give you too high of a dose to start with, so they increase it a little bit at a time and increase it frequently.)  On top of all that, my memory was effected by taking Topamax.  I would lose my train of thought mid-sentence.  I would forget the names of things much more easily.  In my friend, who was taking it for migraines, she started to experience hair loss.  Any one of these symptoms by themselves would be enough to not want to take the medicine.  Topamax is in the class of anticonvulsants.  There are other anticonvulsants that are common and effective for bipolar treatment that don't have such severe side effects.
  

[mopeymonique]

Thank you for posting your expierence on Topamaz.  I will talk to my doctor about Risperdol or Geodone.  All I know is I want to get off the Zyprexa because of my weight gain. I'm 5' 2" at 190 lbs way to much weight for my height.  I feel terrible and embarassed about my weight I don't want to do anything or let people see me this fat.
You are lucky, I would love to be too skinny than fat like me.

[lindahand]

I guess I should also say the topomax didn't do much for me except make me stupid. It is know for causing cognitive deficits. Although if you have migraines it is good for that.

[lindahand]

I was prescribed Topomax by my primary before I could get into see the pdoc. The first thing the pdoc did was take me off the topomax. He said it was a rather ineffective drug for bipolar compared to other drugs. I doubt your doctor would allow a switch from Ziprexa straight to Topomax. Maybe though they would switch to something more weight neutral like risperadol or geodone. I am on geodone and lost my Ziprexa weight. Problem is though now I am too skinny and having troubles keeping weight on. So I went from one extreme to the other. Personally being overweight was easier than being so skinny.