Half-Life & Average Time to Clear Out of Your System: Topamax's half-life is 21 hours, it's out of your system in four to five days.
How to Stop Taking Topamax: Your doctor should be recommending that you reduce your dosage by 25-50mg every four to five days, based on the 21 hour half-life, if not more slowly than that. If you're taking another anticonvulsants and you're at 400mg a day, Ortho-McNeil states you can reduce the dosage by 100mg a day every week. For more information, please see the page on how to safely stop taking these crazy meds.
Like any anticonvulsant, if you've been taking Topamax (topiramate) for more than a couple months and you're up to or above 200mg a day you just can't stop Topamax cold turkey if you're not at the therapeutic dosage for another anticonvulsant that you know works for you, otherwise you risk partial-complex, absence seizures or even tonic-clonic grand mals, despite your never having had a seizure disorder before! The risk is worse if you're taking a lithium variant, and/or any antidepressant, especially Wellbutrin (bupropion). Anyone with a history of a seizure disorder who needs to stop taking an anticonvulsant cold turkey needs to be discussing that with two neurologists and not getting your information from some stupid web site. Get off your computer and start making appointments!
