Medication Question

I was put on new medication after a hospitalization two months ago. I am functioning really well on this medication. My cognitive side effects are much less severe and my work at school is not so difficult. I can concentrate and write my papers without much difficulty. I am experiencing one strange kind of psychedelic side effect however. For example, I was sitting in the park a few days ago and all of the colors on the leaves of the trees started to pulse and glow forming tunnels of color. The grass began to glow and ripple beneath my feet like waves. This happens a few times a week. I will be out walking around and everything starts pulsating and glowing or rippling and waving. It doesn't last very long. I have been more stable on this medication than anything else in years and it has illuminated my chronic severe migraines of seven years. Topamax is the new drug that was added. I am wondering if anyone else has had these kinds of side effects. The last combination I was on made me into a couch potato. I couldn't concentrate and i had no energy.

Wow, I don't have any advice but if I were medicated, that would definitly be a side effect I'd put up with sorry, it just sounds FUN.

It is kind of magical. I talked to my pdoc about it and she doesn't think I should stop the medication. I guess I consider it a form of a hallucination and that worries me a little even though they are mild the idea of hallucination is a little troubling.

Wow, that's really interesting! I think it's kind of cool actually (maybe that is wrong of me ). Does it worry you? Or is it simply a curiousity? Do these moments negatively affect your functioning?

I can't really say that that's happened to me, not like that. Upon thinking really hard on it, I do seem to vaguely recall times when things seemed visually sharper or just more... something. Nothing of the magnitude of which you speak. And if I recall this correctly (because it's an "in the mists" kind of recollection), it was at the very start of taking something. Can't remember what, but it wasn't Topomax. My experience can probably be chalked up to that kind of effect one can get when hypo or manic, simply by virtue of coming out of very dark places where all is gray, not hypo itself, but just a state relative to the depression. Not sure if that makes any sense.

The thing that first came to mind though was a definite memory. Psychedelic, but very different. There was a night in particular that, in addition to my usual meds, I'd had a couple of others for a back issue. Ones that I'd taken before w/o incident. Even looked up the combo with the psych ones online, and though they always have a CYA slant, didn't seem problematic. However. The only word I could find to describe what happened was "trippy". But not in a fun way. And not colorful, but shifting darkness. I tried to enjoy it, really I did. (No, really.) But it was kind of scary (but not in a way the story of which would be a definite digression... ). Was afraid to fall asleep. 1) because, seriously, I really wanted to enjoy it, and maybe just maybe if I just kept trying, I would and didn't want to miss the opportunity(!) and 2) I thought I would die if I fell asleep, which was a very weird fear, as it was also my fondest hope. But that would be a digression as well. Yeah, a quite twisted night altogether. (I stopped the others despite my back, btw.)

Soooo, kind of, but very differently. Seriously, I wish it were your way!

I would get your eyes checked. Topamax can cause vision problems and even narrow-angle glaucoma.

Is your peripheral vision normal? Are you having any headaches, eye pain, any other symptoms at all?

Or maybe it's deja vu/jamais vu that you are experiencing?

No headaches or eye pain. I can read fine. The pulsating colors and vibrating tunnels of color are distracting more than anything. At least they don't last long.

I don't know. But it has me concerned...

Me, too. If I were you, I'd definitely tell your pdoc about this 'shroom-like effect. That's not a normal side effect at all.

Could it be a type of migraine?

you are supposed to get your eyes checked two months after starting topamax, because if you are going to develop glaucoma, it happens soon or not at all.

the other thing might be, are you dehydrated at all when this happens? I take mine at night, and if I am not well hydrated, I will half-wake up with weird hallucinations like i'm back in the 1960's. And i'm in a dark room! the topamax does say to drink a lot of water or else it'll mess with your kidneys.

It doesn't sound like a side effect. It is probably a coincidence that it happened right after you started the topamax. It does sound like a hallucination and it is important to tell your pdoc about it.

I talked to my PDOC about it and she says we should keep an eye on it and see if it gets worse. She did some blood tests and they came back normal. My bipolar symptoms are under control and I am functioning better than I have in three years so she thinks I should stay on the medication. I just wondered if this is a common side effect with topamax and if anyone else has had this experience. These symptoms started with the topamax.

It's not a common side effect.

I still think you should:
a)have a screening neuro exam done by your GP (make sure she checks your visual fields)
b)have your eyes checked by your optometrist

Just to be safe!

were you feeling manic, or were you sleep deprived at the time?

Question about this. After how many hours awake is it 'normal' to hallucinate? I have hallucinated before several times, but it was always when I was sleep-deprived, so I never said anything to my pdoc. But in the past, I would have to stay up 2 nights or so to hallucinate. Now I hallucinate staying up even one night! At what point is it a true hallucination and not just sleep-deprivation?

I have been feeling great. I've been sleeping, no migraines or seizures. My moods have stabilized, my months of depression have lifted. I just have these strange spells a few times a week out of the blue that last somewhere between a minute or thirty seconds. I took mushrooms with a Navajo shaman when I was a troubled teenager and this is what it reminds me of. He made me a mild mushroom tea on several occasions as we performed a series of ceremonies. I am of a native American background.

hmnn....flashbacks?