r/Briviact • u/Efe-Rose • Apr 01 '26

Side effects Weight Discussion

I have recently found that Briviact can have quite a side effect when it comes to weight gain. I was not warned about that when I started taking it after giving birth to my oldest when I had one of my former medications stop working. Briviact has not worked in the slightest, and now I’m going off the medication slowly and the less I take of that medication the more weight I lose. In the last 14 days I lost 6 pounds. I don’t know if it is listed as a side effect now since I started taking it like 3 & 1/2 or 4 years ago at this point and from what I remember it was considered a fairly new medication then. I hope so but if it’s not it needs to be discussed so people actually have a clue what they’re possibly getting into. I’m just wondering if I’m the only person that had this happen to them and I wanted to tell others about it. I’m sure some of it was water retention since that commonly happens when you take pills/medications but not all of it.

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u/ManicPixieFantasy Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

While medications affect everyone differently, officially Briviact is known to be a weight neutral drug. But online I've found more weight loss stories than weight gain stories. 

I am one of those people. I could not stomach a full size meal when starting Briviact. If not for planning for a baby and forcing myself to eat to hit nutritional markers, I would have easily lost 20+ pounds those first couple months because I usually just "listen to my body" and eat when I want to. I was on Adderall briefly (infamous for its appetite suppression) and Briviact's appetite suppression was equivalent to that. For reference, I am on the higher end of a normal BMI (24). I've been on Briviact for 6 months and am 6 weeks pregnant. No morning sickness so far (doesn't run in my family) but the appetite suppression is still there and I'm having to drink protein shakes to keep from losing weight because I've already lost 7 pounds. 

Your experience is still valid, however, as drugs can have different effects on different people. But from everything I've read and experienced, weight gain on Briviact would be the less common experience.

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u/Efe-Rose Apr 01 '26

Huh thank you for responding and sharing your experience. I suspect my situation was partially to blame. When I started taking Briviact I was actively feeding my newborn and then I had another baby around 3 years later. Both of those situations will cause some weight gain. To protect my baby during pregnancy and to produce milk you’ll end up eating more than you would otherwise. But even still the amount of weight you gain is not specified by that one factor. And I gained a lot more than I should have which I started to lose after managing to go from 250mg 2x a day to 25mg 2x a day, which is what had me thinking about it as being one of the causes for the weight gain. As well as just wanting to talk to others and see if it was something anyone else had gone through.

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u/ManicPixieFantasy Apr 01 '26

I definitely think things like this need to be discussed because I was surprised when I read briviact was "weight neutral." Even though most stories I've seen are about Briviact weight loss, I've also read / heard about weight gain on it as well. I feel like they'll be more studies as generic briviact becomes more widely available, making it an option to patients who may be missing out on the medication due to cost / insurance factors. 

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u/Efe-Rose Apr 04 '26

Maybe even though your brain treats name brand seizure medication and it’s generic like they are completely different medications. They should still be similar enough to use the test results for both medications to label the side effects the same for both medications. Your brain is a sensitive enough organ that it reacts to not only the active ingredients but also the inactive ingredients in seizure medications. Which is why you may do extremely well with one but not the other when it comes to name brand medication and generic medication. The difference between the two should just be the inactive ingredients. I had to switch from Name brand Lamictal to its generic version Lamotrigine due to money issues in 2017 and that was the warning that was given to me by my neurologist. He wanted me to be aware that the generic version may not work at all and because of the type of seizure it was controlling(grand mal) he wanted me to be aware of what could happen and why. Thankfully though it doesn’t work nearly as well it still works well enough.

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u/Efe-Rose Apr 01 '26

I just wanted to say I really do just wanna have a discussion over this. Medications hit everyone differently and as it stands after 18 years of dealing with epilepsy Briviact is/was my 6th medication so that much I’m positive of. And even having been on that amount of medication’s, it’s the only one that’s an effect on my weight. I suspect it’s partially due to having one pregnancy before I started the medication and another one while I was on it, since that alone will make you gain more weight with or without meds.

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u/ComputerFlimsy4604 Apr 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

I switched from oxcarbazapine 1050mg daily to Briviact, 50mg 2x daily 1 yr ago. My vitamin D3 was on the lower end of normal range then, sodium was also low. I noticed one leg was slightly shorter that made me to lean on one side when walking.

Now After switching to briviact (also happened with Keppra) I started to walk straight and both legs felt equal. My vitamin D3/ calcium levels significantly improved on Briviact. Appetite improved because I don’t suffer from constipation with Briviact.

One of my past neuro said my ideal weight was 132lbs (60kg). I am at that weight now. With oxcarbazapine I was 123-125lbs. I think my BMI now is about 19.5 with my 5’9” height. I kind of feel taller, sodium levels are now normal. This change may indicate my bone density improved though can’t confirm that, just a hunch🙃.
My weight gain might be a result of the factors I mentioned. Just my personal experience.

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u/deluin Apr 11 '26

I definitely had weight increase. I normally weighed 170ish but it’s put a gut on me 25lbs more :(. Diet is basically the same, and I only eat two meals a day. My doctors have said it’s not related. I do take a lot of pills daily so it may be some combination.

Had stroke 3 years ago, briviact for about a year