Several months before my wife's affair she was given an additional anti seizure med called Keppra. This drug comes with a whole host of nasty side effects that include increased aggression, hostility, irritability, mood swings, personality changes, and a few others.
Now, we both acknowledge that she's responsible for her decisions, but keppra is infamous for changing people. I've joined a few epilepsy groups on Facebook and the overwhelming consensus is to avoid keppra. So many people have lost friends, family, and yes, even marriages while on it. There's even a term for it, "keppra rage."
She's ultimately responsible for the choices she made, but it can't be ignored that when she had her affair it wasn't too long after she finished titration to the dosage she's at now. It did change her. We started arguing over everything and she became a different person. She's been on it for well over a year now, and seems to have adjusted to it. Which is something it's also known for. Some people do adjust. She's back to her old lovable self and I'd daresay even happy now.
She had another seizure a couple of months ago (25-30 second absence seizure, not a full blown grand mal), and her Dr wants to increase her dosage, but she's terrified of the side effects. We've done a deep dive on it, and it is known to really screw some people up. I know we're all hesitant to place any blame on external sources here, but from my reading it very well could have been a pretty big factor with her decision making and personality changes. She was not the same for several months. Obviously we don't want her to have another seizure, but damnit, we're back to a pretty good place again now and really don't want to rock the boat on these still choppy seas.
She hasn't increased her dose yet, and I think we're going to explore some alternatives. I'm being told that briviact is a good one to switch to, or even just taking vitamin b6 with keppra helps a lot. We're going to have a discussion with her neurologist about it. The thing is, it does have a really good track record for controlling seizures.
I'm not looking for, nor do I expect any medical advice here, but just wanted to vent a little bit. The more I read, the more I think she would have never done this if it weren't for keppra. It really did number on her. We were together for almost 28 years when she had her affair, and there was never even a hint of a possibility she'd ever do something like this. It absolutely changed her.
