Side effects from medications for epilepsy usually include being lethargic, dizzy, sometimes off balance, because they affect the brain and sometimes they cause that kind of side effect. Usually people get used to that and they'll go away over time.
There are specific side effect to certain medications. Depakote has liver metabolism and so you have to follow the liver. Dilantin, which is another old medication will also affect the liver and you have to follow levels and liver function test. Newer medications don't have as much liver metabolism and so you just have to adjust the dose for, say, kidney function and things like that.
Specifically for women side effects can include birth defects, and so those are always addressed with females of childbearing age. We try to stick to the newer medications that have a lower rate of birth defects, called "teratogenicity," and most patients do have healthy babies. They have to take extra vitamins and they have more follow-up during pregnancy, but those are things that we have to talk about and make certain choices about medication.
