Namenda--anyone tried it?
My migraine doctor has been weaning me off of Trokendi because not only was it affecting my memory, but it was causing kidney damage too! This explains why when I was on a high dosage of Topamax (same drug, different delivery system), I was getting weird kidney numbers. We only put it all together this year!
Anyway, he is all excited about Namenda, which was originally created for dementia or Alzheimer's patients. And with my memory loss from the topirimate, this will be a good thing. (Although they say you get your memory back anyway.). Apparently, Namenda doesn't affect the liver or the kidneys, doesn't cause weight gain, actually has a bit of appetite suppressant (not as much as Topamax), and low incidence of side effects. He is starting me really low at 5 mg. And so far, I'm not feeling anything. I've only been taking it for a few days. Just wondering when it kicks in.
I'm still at 75 mg. Trokendki as we can only go down 25 mg. per week. It gives me nasty side effects otherwise. I can't believe that I'm getting the same side effects coming down that I did going up. I'm getting that awful tingling in my fingers to the point where I can hardly feel my fingertips. It's nuts. Just a few more weeks to go and I'll be rid of it forever.
Interested in hearing if anyone has heard of Namenda. At my clinic, it's the hot new thing for the neurologists. LOL
Lynn
Hi lynnv,
Namenda is used for migraine prevention and some people have success with it. I've not tried it but know patients who have and like it. There are many more options besides Topamax, close to 100 in fact. You can read more about migraine prevention medication in this article; https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-management-essential-4-preventive-treatment/.
Tapering off medications like Trokendi needs to be done slowly, and for some people very slowly. Some people need more time between doses than others. An example would be staying on 25 mg longer than one week to help ease unpleasant side effects.
Please let us know how you are doing on Namenda
NancyI really don't understand the reason for this reply. I've had migraines for close to three decades and I'm well aware of how many options there are to Topamax. I'm pretty sure I tried most of them. Why would you think I don't know?
I also am tapering off slowly. My doctor has me going down 25mg. a week at a time. It's taking a long, long time, but we have to do it this way, otherwise I get very ill. I have two more weeks to go. I'm pretty impatient to get it over with because topiramate has been damaging my kidneys and is causing hair loss. I never had this problem years ago, but after a long time on the drug, these issues became really scary.
I started Namenda last week because I started getting too many migraines. But it's only at 5 mg. and I'm not sure when the doctor will raise the dosage. He plans to. Most documentation I've read says the average dose is about 15-20 mg.
Lynn
Hi,
I have some experience with Namenda.
After reading several studies about it and not wanting to go on Topamax (I'm in school, I can't be at a loss for words at the moment) I tried it. The studies talked about its relationship to glutamate and sounded promising in efficacy - Namenda made sense in terms of what I know about migraine physiology. I tapered up to 20 mg, was on it for about two months, it didn't seem to help and had some substantial side effects so I went off it.
The major side effect for me was serious vertigo - it was like I was a fish in a fishbowl that was being shaken. Really disconcerting. I was clinging to chairs and was very distracted by it. And there was fuzzy thinking and fatigue, over and beyond what I was getting from the migraines. It did not help my migraine frequency at all, so I tapered off after two months. Most of the studies I read, as well as things online about it, and my doctors experience proscribing it, did not talk about extensive side effects, so I expect I'm am unusual in my experience.
I definitely think its worth trying. I hope it works for you, Lynn.
Gee, I have not read about this side effect at all. It makes me kind of scared! But everyone is different; that I know for sure. I had a very positive experience with Topamax for a couple years and had none of the awful side effects that people wrote about. But it turned on me in the end. Now I can't wait to get off the stuff (in the Trokendi form now.)
I sure hope it does work. I have tried SO MANY drugs for migraines and most were miserable failures. I feel like a guinea pig. LOL
