drugs for temporal lobe epilepsy

[drmss]

What are your experiences with the following drugs? I want to start with the drug that I have the best chance of maintaining my intellect, fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and personalty.

Trileptal = oxcarbazepine
Keppra = levetiracetam
Topamax = topiramate
Lamictal = lamotrigine

[clinicalguru3]

Actually the most important thing to know is what the best drug for your type of epilepsy is.
If the correct drug is chosen there is a greater chance that you will manage with a single drug at a lower dose.
In general for focal onset epilepsy (as in your case) we chosse to start with a drug like carbamazepine ( or oxcarbazepine if there is a reason why this may be better e.g. interaction with other drugs).

Please clarify:- has your neurologist given you a choice of these meds? I have to say this would be quite irregular and I would very rarely start with Keppra or Topamax as the first-line drug (as treatment with a single drug) as they usually get added togethor with other meds.

Looking forward to hearing back,

CG3