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Dr. Andrew Rynne
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Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Born With Hydrocephalus. Taking Grand Mal Seizures. Allergic To Generic Drug. Does Everything Sound Alright?

My son was born with hydrocephalus , and takes grand mal seizures. He has always taken Epival 250 mg,and Tegretol 200 mg for seizure control. He takes 2 tegretol and 2 epival in am, and 2 tegretol and 3 epival in pm. Recently, the pharmacy switched his epival to novo-divalproex, and ap0-divalproex which are generic. He started taking seizures again, a different kind, but still very scary. I asked the Dr. at hospital where I took him by ambulance about generic drugs, and he said they were OK. They are not. The pharmacist told me my son was allergic to the filler in the generic drugs. He is OK with the regular Epival and Tegretol. I wondered if you had any input into this issue. I am very afraid for my son, because grand mal seizures are a medical emergency, and I have never had to fight with a doctor about a generic drug, but I know my son is not OK with them. He is on a low stress program at home, we keep it pretty low. He has always had good results with the regular Epival. Can you give me any information on this. I know something is just not right here. Any help would be appreciated. Lois (Mom) and caregiver.
Thu, 25 Oct 2012
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Neurologist 's  Response
Hi,
Thank you for posting your query regarding your son's health.

I agree with you that changing the prescription (from epival and tegretol to generic version) could be responsible for recurrence of seizures in your son.

I have had similar experiences in my practice and there are research papers published on the same issue.

I would request you to discuss these issues with your neurologist and try switching back to tegretol and epival.

Best wishes,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM (Neurology)
Senior Consultant Neurologist
Apollo hospitals, Hyderabad
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Born With Hydrocephalus. Taking Grand Mal Seizures. Allergic To Generic Drug. Does Everything Sound Alright?

Hi, Thank you for posting your query regarding your son s health. I agree with you that changing the prescription (from epival and tegretol to generic version) could be responsible for recurrence of seizures in your son. I have had similar experiences in my practice and there are research papers published on the same issue. I would request you to discuss these issues with your neurologist and try switching back to tegretol and epival. Best wishes, Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM (Neurology) Senior Consultant Neurologist Apollo hospitals, Hyderabad