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What You Can Do |
- Tell the FDA Commissioner that you need the FDA to act on this problem, as part of the their responsibility to ensure that medications for epilepsy are safe. You want to be able to count on your antiepileptic medications to act in the same exact way in your body no matter which manufacturer’s versions of the drug you use is issued. You want to avoid unexpected seizures and side effects.
Click here to send a message directly to the FDA.
- Tell your pharmacist you do not want your medication switched without your consent – and your doctor’s consent – and ask him or her to put a note in your electronic record explaining that you take antiepileptic medications for seizures and not to switch you.
Download letter for your pharmacist from No More Seizures site.
- Reporting Problems with Medication Switches
What if you experience unexpected side effects or seizures following a switch?
If you have had unusual side effects or unexpected seizures within 4 to 6 weeks of a switch in the formulation of your medication, immediately call your doctor to let him or her know and inform the FDA by contacting the Commissioner’s office and MedWatch to file a report of a problem with switching.
The FDA encourages people with epilepsy and physicians to report any breakthrough seizures resulting from switching formulations of a product to the FDA's MedWatch program. For information, call 1-800-FDA-1088 or visit the web site at http://www.fda.gov/medwatch.
- Join the Epilepsy Foundation’s eCommunities and let people know what you think or how you’ve been affected by medication switching. You can also find out more about how it has affected others. It’s a great place to connect with people facing some of the same issues you are.
- Be familiar with what your epilepsy medication looks like. If you take a brand-name epilepsy medicine, you can look it up here.
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