Stacy spoke with the neurologist about James’ seizure early yesterday morning and what she saw on the EEG. The neurologist was 95% sure it was a seizure because of his movements and how the Ativan helped instantly.
Stacy asked how long he would need to be on the Phenobarbital (antiseizure med). “As long as we think he needs to be. He will come in for a checkup in a few months and we will check his levels and give him another EEG.”
Are there any side effects of the medication? “Drowsy and maybe slow learning as he gets older.” Remember that I am getting this info kind of like second hand from Stacy, so I questioned the slow learning part. ‘Did she really say that a side effect of Phenobarbital might be slow learning?’ Stacy said that that’s what the doctor said.
So, my curiosity got the best of me and I started to research Phenobarbital and its side effects. And sure enough, I found this from the American Addition Centers website: “Long-term use of phenobarbital is associated with a number of cognitive deficits in adults that can include similar issues with learning and memory, attention and concentration, complex attention, expressive and receptive speech, and problem-solving. Individuals who use phenobarbital for lengthy periods are also often noted to have slower rates of thinking/cognition compared to individuals who do not use the drug.”
There are several other pretty bad side effects of long-term use of Phenobarbital as well. I won’t post them all here, but if you’re curious, check out the “Effects of Phenobarbital” section at the American Addition Centers website. Let’s hope James doesn’t need to be on this long term. Maybe the seizure was a one-time freak thing. Or maybe it wasn’t a seizure at all. We’ll have to do some follow ups with neurology and do some more testing.
