Topamax for pain

[MB]

I am trying Topamax to control nerve pain. It is a newer anticonvulsant. It did not do much at around 50mg/day and I was ready to discontinue but at the insistence of my doctor, I increased the dosage to 100 mg/day and "miracle" the burning pain is mostly gone! I really do not think about the pain anymore.
It made me a little bit on the loopy side at first but by exercising moderately every day and sleeping longer than I usually do, it is somehow tolerable now.

Regarding the SP, Topamax makes the moment-to-moment relaxation a no brainer, you constantly relax down there which is probably very beneficial. It however makes the guided relaxation impossible. You just fall asleep immediately...

Topamax has also the advantage of making you loose weight. I could use that after Neurontin (which was useless for me anyway).

[GARYS]

I never heard of this drug, I was taking the max dosage of neurontin for a couple of months w/ no improvement. What and where was your burning?
Thanks

[MB]

Gary,
The pain is mostly penile burning pain. See my prior post:
viewtopic.php?p=12290&highlight=#12290

There is some good info on Topamax (Topiramate) at this site:
http://www.pharmacytimes.com/newsfeed.cfm?id=27280

Recently, Vinik et al.v12reported that topiramate appeared to induce the growth of new nerve fibers and relieve symptoms of peripheral neuropathy.

I started on 25mg/day in December and increased by 25mg at a time. The improvement came very quickly once I reached 75mg/day (like in 3-4 days).
A bit of warning: It is certainly as sedating as Doxepin or Neurontin (also not quite as bad as Elavil). It alters the taste of food also (which is probably why you loose weight on it). It is not terrible for me but if you have a fine palate...

I had pretty much concluded that the tricyclic antidepressants and anticonvulsants were probably working because you were just so "out of it" that you could care less about the pain. Well, I revised my judgement.

[Ddream]

MB,

That is good news. Please continue to give updates if your success with Topamax changes.
***************

Does anyone know how Topamax compares to Lyrica (pregabalin)?

[MB]

I guess Lyrica just got introduced in the US now. From the anecdotal reports I read (not the official Pfizer litterature obviously) , it is not too different from Neurontin. Same weight gain, loss of libido and other lovely side effects.
I agree, it would be very interesting to compare.

[MB]

I want to close the loop on Topamax. We hear about successful treatments on this forum but there is sometimes no follow up.
Topamax worked great to reduce pain as long as there were some side effects (drowsiness etc...). The day my body got used to it totally, the penile burning pain came back. I increased the dosage to 175mg/day but still no side effects and no effect on the pain whatsoever.
I still got 3 months of decent pain relief out of this product.

I had a similar experience with Neurontin that stopped working suddenly also the pain reduction was by far not as dramatic.

[ddt1974]

.5-1mg of klonopin once daily has really helped me. It is an anti panic and anti seizure drug too. The pain is down to 10% of what it used to be during flares. I don't always take the klonopin everyday, so that I don't become too accustomed to it. Sometimes I will take two advil 200mg and one Xanax 1mg together and that will keep any burning pain in check for 4 hours during a flare. I've been doing stretching but that don't help like Xanax or klonopin! that's for sure. I have my cystoscopy and dilation on June 14th at Cleveland Clinic. Ejaculating no more than once a week helps, but that is sometimes hard to stick with. It's been almost a year since my symptoms started. As far as antibiotics are concerned I had the 5 day zithromax pak, two weeks of 500mg2x a day Cipro, and 10 days of amoxicillin. I get flare ups after ejaculation and bowel movements. All urine tests clear. That's all for me so far. : /

[webslave]

Topamax is a heavy-duty med, not to be taken lightly.
http://www.crazymeds.org/topamaxpi.pdf