Memory loss is a tricky one.

Temporal lobe epilepsy negatively impacts on memory - specifically turning short term data into long term memories. Memory occurs in a processed way - note stimulus, sensory organs reacting to it (five senses), short term processing and then processed into long term memory.

Two structures found within the temporal lobe are the the hippocampus and the amygdala. The hippocampus is responsible for the processing of long term memory and emotional responses, storing and retrieving them. The amygdala is responsible for the responding and remembering emotions, so how you react to emotional stimuli and has huge impact on whether you feel fear and anxiety.

Medication make you tired so concentration is down, which makes it harder to remember things in the short-term. Then the epilepsy itself makes it harder to turn short-term into long term memories. There is also the transient amnesia that happens post seizure.

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/e...
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-06-mystery-...
https://www.epilepsysociety.org.uk/how-epilepsy...
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_04/d_04_cr/...
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_07/d_07_p/d...
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_04/i_04_cr/...

i have memory issue. i think its not the meds. when you are done with a seizure, your brain needs to recover. mine take a minute or so. some take days. when you recover your memory is gone and you are tired all the time.
i have some apps on my phone. 1. is Sudoku 2. is flow free 3. is word finder.
hope that helps

I take 800mg Tegretol brand, take 400 at 9 am and 9pm and have never had any problem since taking and still take it along with Lamictol 200mg brand name take that one at 9am and 2 at 9pm and been sz free since taking, going on 23 yrs sz free

I thought I had a quick response to this but looking back over the time since I started seizing again at 25, somehow I jumped on a soapbox. So please bear with me....

I have experienced short term memory loss quite a bit over the 22 years I’ve been having seizures and taking meds for it (1800mg of Trileptal a day). Many people I’ve talked with, both here and face to face, say they have experienced short term memory loss also. While I believe the memory loss is impacted by the meds we take, I do believe that seizures, whether nocturnal or not, have a part to play in short term memory loss. Especially when one has experienced seizures for a long time.

The reason I believe they are both a factor is because of my personal experience over the years. While for many years it was more annoying than anything else, it seemed to change dramatically after seizures I had 4/29/14. Because my seizures are also nocturnal, I cannot say for sure whether I had one or more seizures that night. What I can say is that I relocated some bones, woke up on my floor gasping for air, had lost control of my bowels, and I’m told that I called five or six people back to back shortly before the paramedics showed up. The only thing I had experienced prior to the seizure(s) that day was waking up on the floor. Everything else was a new experience for me.

It was after the seizure(s) that day that I noticed a serious decline in my short term memory. After refusing, for many years, that it had gotten so bad to the point that I needed to keep post-it’s and notebooks everywhere (something my epileptologist suggested for years, even though he knew I would say I wasn’t that bad...it became a running joke for him and me) I reached a point where I now have to keep a daily log of EVERYTHING I do. People tell me it’s just a fact of getting older. Then I remind them that they can relate because they are in their 70’s-80’s. Not many people my age understand.

So do I think it’s the meds or the seizures?...I think it’s a bit of both.

If it comes down to me having to lower my medication so that I have a better short term memory, I will take a stack of composition books and a bag of pens any day.

My “normal” is hard for others to believe sometimes, but if they can’t or won’t make an effort to understand it, they don’t stay in my life very long. Sometimes because they leave, sometimes because I show them the door. I have had a hard enough time accepting my new “normal”, I don’t have the time, nor should I have to, to convince them so They can be comfortable so that I can be comfortable...if that makes sense.

My memory problems started when my seizures started, when I was 16. In my case it has to do with the fact that the seizures happen more on the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory and concentration, that’s what the videotelemtry discovered. In your case I’m not sure. Ask your doctor. Unfortunately I don’t have only short time memory problems, I also have medium and long time... I keep reading people complaining about the same memory problem. But maybe in your case it’s only the medication. Hope so!