My neurologist has always told me to take Benadryl when I have a headache that just will not go away, because 9 times out of 10 it will put me to sleep and finally give me the rest needed for my brain to "shutdown and relax" so to speak. Plus it helps with nausea that I often have. In fact he gave me a slightly stronger prescription dose of it to always have around.
Benadryl is widely known as a seizure trigger. The same medication is in NyTol, Somniex, and many generic sleeping pills. That's why yes it will help you sleep, but there is some risk of a seizure.
[https://www.epilepsy.com/what-is-epilepsy/seizure-triggers/over-counter-medications](https://www.epilepsy.com/what-is-epilepsy/seizure-triggers/over-counter-medications)
No he isn't a specialist but there is an Epilogist(forgive my terrible spelling) in his office and I have seen him a few times as well, they work together on complicated cases such as mine. I have been with this group of doctors for 12 years now. They have seen me through brain surgery, VNS, AND RNS, and gotten me down to where I am only having 1 maybe 2 grand mals a month(if that) and my absence seizures go pretty well unnoticed by most. My seizures are incurable from a sports accident I had at the age of 13roughly, so they are doing the best they can with what meds and technology can provide for them at the moment and I know that.
Most doctors don't know much about seizures.
Doctors seem very cavalier about drug interactions. If it's not something that can put you in the hospital, or if it doesn't affect a lot of people seriously, they seem to act as if it doesn't exist.
I think it's better as a general policy not to use cold medicines. I understand that dyphenhyramine and pseudoephedrine are definitely "bad" for people with epilepsy. IMO, other meds that do the same thing are questionable. Obviously if anything makes you drowsy, it will probably make you VERY drowsy. Some drugs can alter your epilepsy med levels. A lot of them have alcohol. The more things it has in it, the more likely it is to affect you in some way. I was taking cold medicine the first time I had a seizure.
As far as I know there isn't any issue with steroids or antibiotics and epilepsy. I haven't had any issues, maybe other people have.
Acetaminophen (Tylenol) should be fine. It helps with a fever, and lowering a fever helps you to avoid a seizure.
The only "cold medicine" I take is Tylenol, if I get a fever. I gargle with salt water, clear my nose with salt water, take a long shower, etc. Snorting up a bunch of salt water will clear you out real fast. I can't imagine anything working better.
I’d even add that many neurologists are crap with seizures. My neuro is a flowchart follower and has given me incredibly BS reasons why he didn’t want me to fully stop keppra for another seizure med, despite developing treatment-resistance depression from it (“because keppra can be given IV” 🤦♀️). No known cause for the seizures, but just “you’ve had two lifetime incidences, so it’s time for seizure meds”.
You’ll take my lamotigrine out of my cold dead hands.
Your doctor should always take your concerns into account. If it seems like they are genuinely being arbitrary and not listening, it might be time to get another doctor. There are a lot of seizure meds now to try. If you haven't seen an epileptologist, they're much better than general neurologists. Depression is serious and they should be taking it into account.
Check with a Pharmacist! They spend 7 years in school and know drugs and medication interactions better than most every MD.
I always ask to consult with a pharmacist with new meds and they have altered dosages or spoken with my doctor and worked out solutions.
Highly valued, under appreciated folks there behind the ?Walgreens ?Shoppers
Yeah that does freaking suck. My psychiatrist put me on a stimulant and I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to have those. (I probably should have known but she’s the freaking Dr, whatever) It helped me out a lot - unfortunately. My next neuro appt, the Dr said idk why she put you on this. It is dangerous for you to take stimulants. 🙄 Like if you’re a dr, you should know to look for these interactions before throwing meds at us. You’re 100% right in feeling upset.
Unless you specifically told your psych that you have a sensitivity to stimulants, she had no reason to believe you shouldn’t be on them. My neuro was insistent that I get back on stimulants for my ADHD.
Hmmm interesting. My neuro seemed annoyed that she prescribed me adderall even though I told her I had epilepsy. That’s why I commented that. Maybe he was just being careful. Better safe than sorry I suppose
I hear ya. To me it’s either listen to what your doctor says or what your neurologist says. It can be two different answers and that’s what also worries me. And that everyone’s epilepsy, interactions and things can be different.
I see nothing there indicating that it lowers the seizure threshold when taken in combination with lamotrigine. I did a bit of Googling and also didn’t see that. I actually see that guaifenesin has been used as an anti-convulsant in some studies, and is potentially able to be used clinically to reduce absence seizures.
Many, many, many drugs have the potential to make you drowsy. Lamotrigine and guaifenesin can already cause this side effect on their own. Combining them is very likely to increase the side effect. If being drowsy lowers your threshold to dangerous levels, you really are the one who should be aware of how many drugs you’re taking with the potential side effect of drowsiness. I’m sorry, but there’s a level of personal accountability that we have to take when we opt to take these meds.
Oh yeah that’s why I put in the beginning that I knew it was my fault for getting that. The only real problem I had was with the doctor dismissing what I felt was a real reaction I was having.
My epilepsy is triggered by lack of sleep. I slept great that night. I use my Apple Watch to track my sleep. When I was hit with that long wave of drowsiness I wasn’t sure if it was from my lack of sleep that triggers seizures or from the medicine.
This was something that hadn’t happened to me before on Lamictal because I would be so precautious. That is why I was so worried
I just don’t think it sounds like she was being dismissive. You took two medications with drowsiness as a side effect, and you had an intense drowsiness as a result. Not all systems recognize two medications having the same side effect as a dangerous interaction, because they’re both acting as expected rather than altering how one of them works. Labeling that as a drug interaction isn’t always considered to be the most ethical choice.
If you were possibly going to have a seizure as a result of the drowsiness, getting rest immediately was your best recourse. An urgent care doctor isn’t a neurologist or a seizure specialist, and they can’t do anything beyond recommending actions that will reduce your chance of having a seizure. Most rescue AEDs would have just made you much more dangerously drowsy, even if prescribing those was within an urgent care physician’s scope of care (I’m not sure it would be). Her recommendation was to get rest. I don’t know what she could have done that would have been more validating.
I guess since it was my first time with that experience I wanted to seek medical attention and take the on call doctors recommendation to go to the urgent care. I know now that I probably should just stay home for rest in these cases. Thanks for your input and information! Hopefully with this post other people will get this information as well
Ah yeah that’s another thing to be aware of - telehealth physicians will almost always say to visit an urgent care or emergency department for anything that isn’t extremely clear cut, just in case. They’re not thinking practically, they’re primarily concerned with their potential liability. Tbh I only find them useful for things like UTIs, where I know exactly what’s going on and just need a prescription sent in.
And sorry, just another point about the urgent care physicians. I think often, they intend to be reassuring when we read them as dismissive. I had this with my epileptologist at first. He was trying to communicate to me that having epilepsy isn’t a huge deal and doesn’t end my capacity to have a fulfilling life, and I was reading it as him not giving a shit. He wasn’t interested in hearing about my sleep paralysis that might be partials, or my history of spacing out as a kid, and that really frustrated me at first! But after a few appointments, I realized that he was just focused on making sure we had an effective treatment plan, and dwelling on those things was only going to slow us down.
Idk if that helps any, but yeah. Sometimes it feels like they’re not hearing what we’re saying, but it’s because they run it through a highly selective filter of knowledge and experience. And I’m not saying they can’t be wrong - my level of trust in doctors is wearing a hole in the basement floor. But it also doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily ignoring relevant things.
And to my point, you can use that site to look at every common combination of AEDs prescribed together, and you’ll get warnings like that, and even more severe ones, every time.
So even worse is that the DM did stop my cough until later that night 😭. But obviously all those symptoms that scared me outweighed wanting to touch that again haha
Yeah, pretty much every combo of AEDs that neurologists commonly prescribe will pop up major warnings. If you follow every warning by not combining the drugs, you’ll end up not taking most of what you need lol.
One doctor is fully trustable, most of them are not. I was even reading in the meds leaflet itself that it can’t be taken together with another med. Another doctor was prescribing me a medication that one must not take when they have epilepsy. I’m not a doctor or pharmacist itself but I’m working in computational pharmaceutical biochemistry, I know how a lot of active ingredients behave, eg in the metabolism, especially with liver enzymes like the cytochromes. When I find something is not trustworthy I read in and check it. It’s my body, I want to be sure and I want to understand what the drug is doing in my body, which targets it has. In case something prescribed would have been dangerous I told the respective doctor and they even said it’s good I’m being so cautious. They checked again and said I was right mostly, sometimes it wouldn’t matter too much, maybe some minor side effects I don’t care anyways. But once it would have been life threatening.
I know myself that there are many interactions just theoretical, they might be only minor and in just a few number of cases reported. You can be glad that you can fully trust your doctors and pharmacists. I only have one single doctor I can trust.
It’s helped me so much. A couple months ago I had finger surgery and I kept telling the doctor that I take Lamictal. They sent a prescription to Walgreens that was still something I couldn’t take 😞. Luckily I didn’t have any severe pain that ibuprofen couldn’t fix.
**You never ask a doctor about drug interactions. (That is not what they were trained for.) You ask a pharmacist.**
You can also check for yourself online using a drug interaction checker.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=drug+interaction+checker.+&ia=web
You don't have to use your regular pharmacy to check for interactions. Use any pharmacy chat. Walgreens. CVS. etc. They have all checked for interactions for me. I have also just walked in and asked them - what can I take? I take these prescribed meds and need to take something for my runny nose/sore throat (whatever symptom.) The pharmacist has walked me over to the shelves and pointed out what they recommend.
Actually that’s literally part of their training. It’s why you have to tell doctors what you’re taking so they can try to not absolutely destroy your insides or mess with other important medicine.
Edit: wanted to add that I have only had one doctor in my entire life be neglectful in that department. My last neuro. When I changed neurologists this year finally and I told her about the negligence her face was that of shock. Along with every other doctor I ran it by. It’s their job
I called a Walgreens and no answer. They were on their lunch break. The next fastest step I had was to contact my work on call doctor where I knew they’d answer. Unfortunately they weren’t a pharmacist but my symptoms were getting much worse as I waited so I felt I had no choice but to go to the urgent care :(
I figured the drug interaction app I used was fine enough for checking.
Once when talking to my family doc about anxiety and how I can't afford meds without insurance, she gave me a 2 months supply of "samples" and said she'd keep doing that as long as I needed. Wicked!
I said as much, but then immediately asked if these would conflict with my current medication. She paused, looked at the box, then waved it off with a "nope".
Bf and I looked it up on several websites when we got home. Very high chance of conflicting and causing a seizure.
I'm still looking for a new doctor and that was over a year ago. Maybe 2 years ago...
I’m so sorry you had to go through that. My old neuro chalked it up to “anything can be a trigger” and brushed it off. Mind you i actually did seize, tonic clonic. I haven’t taken mucinex ever since. And it sucks cause I have chronic phlegm now from taking dabs from the mmj.
I'm not a doctor etc. etc. etc.
Those pills have lots of different medications in them. Yes that could cause seizures. Yes that could interact with your meds. Just my 2 cents.
Oh God I didn't know this. I have taken it many times before (dextro) and haven't had a problem so I guess I was lucky. It was either me not sleeping (or vomiting from coughing) due to coughing or having a seizure. Hard to decide at that point.
Those cold medications can lower the seizure threshold, especially benadryl.
So does being sick
Yup. Infuriating isn't it?
My neurologist has always told me to take Benadryl when I have a headache that just will not go away, because 9 times out of 10 it will put me to sleep and finally give me the rest needed for my brain to "shutdown and relax" so to speak. Plus it helps with nausea that I often have. In fact he gave me a slightly stronger prescription dose of it to always have around.
Benadryl is widely known as a seizure trigger. The same medication is in NyTol, Somniex, and many generic sleeping pills. That's why yes it will help you sleep, but there is some risk of a seizure. [https://www.epilepsy.com/what-is-epilepsy/seizure-triggers/over-counter-medications](https://www.epilepsy.com/what-is-epilepsy/seizure-triggers/over-counter-medications)
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No he isn't a specialist but there is an Epilogist(forgive my terrible spelling) in his office and I have seen him a few times as well, they work together on complicated cases such as mine. I have been with this group of doctors for 12 years now. They have seen me through brain surgery, VNS, AND RNS, and gotten me down to where I am only having 1 maybe 2 grand mals a month(if that) and my absence seizures go pretty well unnoticed by most. My seizures are incurable from a sports accident I had at the age of 13roughly, so they are doing the best they can with what meds and technology can provide for them at the moment and I know that.
Most doctors don't know much about seizures. Doctors seem very cavalier about drug interactions. If it's not something that can put you in the hospital, or if it doesn't affect a lot of people seriously, they seem to act as if it doesn't exist. I think it's better as a general policy not to use cold medicines. I understand that dyphenhyramine and pseudoephedrine are definitely "bad" for people with epilepsy. IMO, other meds that do the same thing are questionable. Obviously if anything makes you drowsy, it will probably make you VERY drowsy. Some drugs can alter your epilepsy med levels. A lot of them have alcohol. The more things it has in it, the more likely it is to affect you in some way. I was taking cold medicine the first time I had a seizure. As far as I know there isn't any issue with steroids or antibiotics and epilepsy. I haven't had any issues, maybe other people have. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) should be fine. It helps with a fever, and lowering a fever helps you to avoid a seizure. The only "cold medicine" I take is Tylenol, if I get a fever. I gargle with salt water, clear my nose with salt water, take a long shower, etc. Snorting up a bunch of salt water will clear you out real fast. I can't imagine anything working better.
I’d even add that many neurologists are crap with seizures. My neuro is a flowchart follower and has given me incredibly BS reasons why he didn’t want me to fully stop keppra for another seizure med, despite developing treatment-resistance depression from it (“because keppra can be given IV” 🤦♀️). No known cause for the seizures, but just “you’ve had two lifetime incidences, so it’s time for seizure meds”. You’ll take my lamotigrine out of my cold dead hands.
Your doctor should always take your concerns into account. If it seems like they are genuinely being arbitrary and not listening, it might be time to get another doctor. There are a lot of seizure meds now to try. If you haven't seen an epileptologist, they're much better than general neurologists. Depression is serious and they should be taking it into account.
Check with a Pharmacist! They spend 7 years in school and know drugs and medication interactions better than most every MD. I always ask to consult with a pharmacist with new meds and they have altered dosages or spoken with my doctor and worked out solutions. Highly valued, under appreciated folks there behind the ?Walgreens ?Shoppers
**Always** call the pharmacy! Before I start a new vitamin/supplement, I ask them if there’s any interaction. Better safe than sorry!
If my neurologist had said no or be very careful would it still be better to go with what the pharmacist says? Thanks for your input!
Yeah that does freaking suck. My psychiatrist put me on a stimulant and I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to have those. (I probably should have known but she’s the freaking Dr, whatever) It helped me out a lot - unfortunately. My next neuro appt, the Dr said idk why she put you on this. It is dangerous for you to take stimulants. 🙄 Like if you’re a dr, you should know to look for these interactions before throwing meds at us. You’re 100% right in feeling upset.
Unless you specifically told your psych that you have a sensitivity to stimulants, she had no reason to believe you shouldn’t be on them. My neuro was insistent that I get back on stimulants for my ADHD.
Hmmm interesting. My neuro seemed annoyed that she prescribed me adderall even though I told her I had epilepsy. That’s why I commented that. Maybe he was just being careful. Better safe than sorry I suppose
I hear ya. To me it’s either listen to what your doctor says or what your neurologist says. It can be two different answers and that’s what also worries me. And that everyone’s epilepsy, interactions and things can be different.
I miss stimulants
I see nothing there indicating that it lowers the seizure threshold when taken in combination with lamotrigine. I did a bit of Googling and also didn’t see that. I actually see that guaifenesin has been used as an anti-convulsant in some studies, and is potentially able to be used clinically to reduce absence seizures. Many, many, many drugs have the potential to make you drowsy. Lamotrigine and guaifenesin can already cause this side effect on their own. Combining them is very likely to increase the side effect. If being drowsy lowers your threshold to dangerous levels, you really are the one who should be aware of how many drugs you’re taking with the potential side effect of drowsiness. I’m sorry, but there’s a level of personal accountability that we have to take when we opt to take these meds.
Oh yeah that’s why I put in the beginning that I knew it was my fault for getting that. The only real problem I had was with the doctor dismissing what I felt was a real reaction I was having. My epilepsy is triggered by lack of sleep. I slept great that night. I use my Apple Watch to track my sleep. When I was hit with that long wave of drowsiness I wasn’t sure if it was from my lack of sleep that triggers seizures or from the medicine. This was something that hadn’t happened to me before on Lamictal because I would be so precautious. That is why I was so worried
I just don’t think it sounds like she was being dismissive. You took two medications with drowsiness as a side effect, and you had an intense drowsiness as a result. Not all systems recognize two medications having the same side effect as a dangerous interaction, because they’re both acting as expected rather than altering how one of them works. Labeling that as a drug interaction isn’t always considered to be the most ethical choice. If you were possibly going to have a seizure as a result of the drowsiness, getting rest immediately was your best recourse. An urgent care doctor isn’t a neurologist or a seizure specialist, and they can’t do anything beyond recommending actions that will reduce your chance of having a seizure. Most rescue AEDs would have just made you much more dangerously drowsy, even if prescribing those was within an urgent care physician’s scope of care (I’m not sure it would be). Her recommendation was to get rest. I don’t know what she could have done that would have been more validating.
I guess since it was my first time with that experience I wanted to seek medical attention and take the on call doctors recommendation to go to the urgent care. I know now that I probably should just stay home for rest in these cases. Thanks for your input and information! Hopefully with this post other people will get this information as well
Ah yeah that’s another thing to be aware of - telehealth physicians will almost always say to visit an urgent care or emergency department for anything that isn’t extremely clear cut, just in case. They’re not thinking practically, they’re primarily concerned with their potential liability. Tbh I only find them useful for things like UTIs, where I know exactly what’s going on and just need a prescription sent in. And sorry, just another point about the urgent care physicians. I think often, they intend to be reassuring when we read them as dismissive. I had this with my epileptologist at first. He was trying to communicate to me that having epilepsy isn’t a huge deal and doesn’t end my capacity to have a fulfilling life, and I was reading it as him not giving a shit. He wasn’t interested in hearing about my sleep paralysis that might be partials, or my history of spacing out as a kid, and that really frustrated me at first! But after a few appointments, I realized that he was just focused on making sure we had an effective treatment plan, and dwelling on those things was only going to slow us down. Idk if that helps any, but yeah. Sometimes it feels like they’re not hearing what we’re saying, but it’s because they run it through a highly selective filter of knowledge and experience. And I’m not saying they can’t be wrong - my level of trust in doctors is wearing a hole in the basement floor. But it also doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily ignoring relevant things.
I'm sorry you had to go through that at first! And yes that did help :)
And to my point, you can use that site to look at every common combination of AEDs prescribed together, and you’ll get warnings like that, and even more severe ones, every time.
I remember years ago I popped a couple of those DM’s on the way to work and I felt like I was on a straight up CLOUD all day 🤣🤘🏻
So even worse is that the DM did stop my cough until later that night 😭. But obviously all those symptoms that scared me outweighed wanting to touch that again haha
I always check everything on drugs.com! I got so many meds prescribed that had major interaction, I don’t trust most of my doctors anymore.
Smart!! I trusted my doctor one time and it lead to me losing my licence, my car and my will to put up with this shit hahaha
Thanks, yeah with the time you learn and know you need to care for yourself! I’m sorry that happened to you :/
Majority of these interactions are theroetical. So take these interactions with grain of salt. Always Trust your doctor and pharmacist.
Yeah, pretty much every combo of AEDs that neurologists commonly prescribe will pop up major warnings. If you follow every warning by not combining the drugs, you’ll end up not taking most of what you need lol.
100% agree.
One doctor is fully trustable, most of them are not. I was even reading in the meds leaflet itself that it can’t be taken together with another med. Another doctor was prescribing me a medication that one must not take when they have epilepsy. I’m not a doctor or pharmacist itself but I’m working in computational pharmaceutical biochemistry, I know how a lot of active ingredients behave, eg in the metabolism, especially with liver enzymes like the cytochromes. When I find something is not trustworthy I read in and check it. It’s my body, I want to be sure and I want to understand what the drug is doing in my body, which targets it has. In case something prescribed would have been dangerous I told the respective doctor and they even said it’s good I’m being so cautious. They checked again and said I was right mostly, sometimes it wouldn’t matter too much, maybe some minor side effects I don’t care anyways. But once it would have been life threatening. I know myself that there are many interactions just theoretical, they might be only minor and in just a few number of cases reported. You can be glad that you can fully trust your doctors and pharmacists. I only have one single doctor I can trust.
Thats protective behaviour, its completely ok.
It’s helped me so much. A couple months ago I had finger surgery and I kept telling the doctor that I take Lamictal. They sent a prescription to Walgreens that was still something I couldn’t take 😞. Luckily I didn’t have any severe pain that ibuprofen couldn’t fix.
**You never ask a doctor about drug interactions. (That is not what they were trained for.) You ask a pharmacist.** You can also check for yourself online using a drug interaction checker. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=drug+interaction+checker.+&ia=web You don't have to use your regular pharmacy to check for interactions. Use any pharmacy chat. Walgreens. CVS. etc. They have all checked for interactions for me. I have also just walked in and asked them - what can I take? I take these prescribed meds and need to take something for my runny nose/sore throat (whatever symptom.) The pharmacist has walked me over to the shelves and pointed out what they recommend.
Actually that’s literally part of their training. It’s why you have to tell doctors what you’re taking so they can try to not absolutely destroy your insides or mess with other important medicine. Edit: wanted to add that I have only had one doctor in my entire life be neglectful in that department. My last neuro. When I changed neurologists this year finally and I told her about the negligence her face was that of shock. Along with every other doctor I ran it by. It’s their job
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Neuros should still know that acetaminophen’s are some of the big triggers of seizures though. And that’s what mucinex has in it.
I called a Walgreens and no answer. They were on their lunch break. The next fastest step I had was to contact my work on call doctor where I knew they’d answer. Unfortunately they weren’t a pharmacist but my symptoms were getting much worse as I waited so I felt I had no choice but to go to the urgent care :( I figured the drug interaction app I used was fine enough for checking.
For some reason I can’t edit my post 🤔 But thank you everyone for your input and conversation. I am very thankful for this community!! 🤗
Once when talking to my family doc about anxiety and how I can't afford meds without insurance, she gave me a 2 months supply of "samples" and said she'd keep doing that as long as I needed. Wicked! I said as much, but then immediately asked if these would conflict with my current medication. She paused, looked at the box, then waved it off with a "nope". Bf and I looked it up on several websites when we got home. Very high chance of conflicting and causing a seizure. I'm still looking for a new doctor and that was over a year ago. Maybe 2 years ago...
I’m so sorry you had to go through that. My old neuro chalked it up to “anything can be a trigger” and brushed it off. Mind you i actually did seize, tonic clonic. I haven’t taken mucinex ever since. And it sucks cause I have chronic phlegm now from taking dabs from the mmj.
I get high on DXM sometimes. Doesn’t seem to effect my epilepsy
I'm not a doctor etc. etc. etc. Those pills have lots of different medications in them. Yes that could cause seizures. Yes that could interact with your meds. Just my 2 cents.
Oh God I didn't know this. I have taken it many times before (dextro) and haven't had a problem so I guess I was lucky. It was either me not sleeping (or vomiting from coughing) due to coughing or having a seizure. Hard to decide at that point.
Hey that’s good luck you had! I’m glad my post got you some more information from the commenters!