Carbamazepine, Tegretol
 

Anyone taking this Rx to control the pain? If yes, how many mg and how long have you bee taking it?

tegretol
 

From my experience and from reading the others here, tegretol is usually the first med they put you on. If your dosage is high enough there seems to be some nasty sude effects.

I am lucky so far and have just recently started taking the drug on a daily basis. My episodes were very sporadic at first, now about twice a week. I would suggest that anyone who is on the tegretol (Carbamazepine) to ask for the extended release formula - I take Carbatrol - the side effects do not seem to be as bad for me as the regular chewable tabs I used to take.

I currently only take 200 mg per day (prescribed 400 daily) but if I have an episode I usually end up taking about 600. I do not want to get to the point where the meds prevent me from working, or they quit working!

Good luck!
Rhonda

I started out taking Gabapentin, then tried Tegretol, then Aventyl. I ended up going back to the Gabapentin. It seemed to work the best with the least amount of side affects. Don't get me wrong, I can't take it & drive/work, but it was better than the Tegretol, for me!

I take 600mg/day if I don't have to function, but usually only 200/day at bed time if I'm working.

I take 800 mg daily... been taking it for over a year now.. plus others. and some days its not enough.:(

for what illness do you guys take this for.
I am on 200mgs a day....being told that is a super low dose....
for my bipolar.
was going well at first, but is getting progressively worse.

I am on suboxone, for opiate addiction recovery...it prevents me from
withdrawl symptoms and controls cravings.....
the tegretol seems to be eating all this med up (or causing my body to)rapidly and I am being thrown into wicked withdrawls.

I have to admit, the first thing I did like about it, was that it actually allowed me to feel "manic" as opposed to being severely depressed all the time...
Yeah, now that I think about it....I actually had a "high" from it....
But it is destroying the effects of my other meds.

Anybody else have this effect from tegretol....ruining other meds????

I was actually put on trileptal, which is akin to tegretol. It has an added extra oxygen molecule or something like that. My neurologist said that was now the treatment of choice over tegretol, since tegretol can have negative side effects. Trileptal can have side effects, too, of course, such as a salt depletion, but it's evidently "safer." I'm wondering if maybe you should consider asking your doctor about it.....

I don't have the episodes as its described as a pinching sensation. Its Intermittent since last month. Carbamazepine 200mg was working for me for 8 years straight. The pain would comeback after 4-6 months or so lasting no more then 7 days.

Now, its just there most of the day. Went up to 800mg before the discomfort would go away and it worked or a week, now mostly it doesn't. Whats going on? Too much drowiness with this now.

I got on 800mg for a week now. Causes Drowiness. I don't like that. 200mg had none.

It just means you have to more caution while driving.

Sometimes they make me tired too... depends on the day.. other days are more zombie-like.

radiofrequency rhisolysis
 

Hi everyone. I had the gamma knife and then an mvd last year. Everything was great for a year and then the painful stabs started coming back. I am currently on 1200mg tegretol, 200mg dilantin, and 900mg neurontin. I am waiting to have a radiofrequency rhisolysis procedure done. Has anyone else had this done and were you happy with the results?

Thanks,
Laureen

It causes Drowiness. I workout 3x a week so I take a pre-workout supplement which makes me energized and wide awake.

Cafeine is good savior but thats the only option.

I don't have the stabs or anything painful though.

Why did you have to have both type or surgeries?

Do you take these all at the same time? Which has the most drowiness?

Hi NT,
I had the gamma knife first after going through many painful tn episodes at home and winding up in the emergency room and then the hospital because the pain was so bad. After the gamma knife I was okay for 2 weeks and then the pain came back with a vengeance so they decided to do the mvd. Right now I take tegretol 4oomg, dilantin 1oomg, and neurontin 3oomg at 6:00a.m. At 2:oo p.m. I take tegretol 400mg and neurontin 300mg. At 6:00p.m. I take another 100mg dilantin and then at 10:00p.m. I take tegretol 400mg and neurontin 300mg. Whenever I add a new drug in then I have drowsiness and tiredness for the first few days, but then my body adjusts and gets used to it. That's why I'm having trouble with break through pain and why I'm going to have this new procedure done. I'm hoping to get off most of my medication but I'm worried about the side effects of the procedure.

Laureen

I tried neurontin, didn"t do well on it, made me too stupid:D

Just saw the pain specialist yesterday. He wants me to take 100mg of Gabapentin, 4 times a day plus he's adding Baclofen, not sure the dosage yet. Has anyone taken this mixture?? What can I expect??

Hi Jiggered. I was on 10mg baclofen 3xday along with 200mg dilantin, 1000mg dilantin and 2700mg neurontin last year before my mvd. The baclofen didn't seem to do too much to me except when I first started taking it I had bad dreams. You can apparently go up pretty high on neurontin. I think the max is 3600mg a day. My highest was 3200mg a day. All of that medication made me very tired and forgetful. Laureen

What do you do about it?

Anyone using just Carba?

Well, if I can take a short nap during the day I try to do that before the kids get home from school. The forgetfulness is just a daily thing. That is why I'm going to try this radiofrequency rhizolysis procedure so that hopefully I will be able to get off of all of these meds or a least cut down drastically.

lots of coffee and tons of post it notes to remember stuff...

Is this a safe procedure?

Do you exercise?

Honestly don"t have the energy... I have become kind of a hermit lately... If the weather is nice I sometimes sit on the stoop.

I can still do it. Just take a Pre-workout supplement. I take White Flood. Check it out.

It's not just about having the energy... It's also about not wanting to do anything that might set the pain off.... After a while pain kind of consumes your life...

What about the folks who are under control with the pain with medication?

Anyone on 800mg Carbamazepine?

I am taking 400 in the morning and 400 at night. This does makes me drowsy.

Maybe I should take 800 at night?

I tend to do better when I take half in the AM and half in the PM... Might wear off or something... Check and see what your doctor says though.. YMMV

Whats the purpose of XR then? Well my blood tests were very good so there is no way I would OD.

How do I know I really have TN and not NICO?

Went back to 400mg after a week or so from 800mg and I have no pain for a year and now it returns.

Whats up with that.

I take 200mg daily. I have permission from my GP to go up and down as I see fit. When I go to the dentist for example I up the dose a few days in advance. I believe my TN and dental treatments are inked so am still having dental work. ( and will be for the next month or so) I have only been taking this for 6 weeks but it does seem to work for me. My main side effect is tiredness. The pain is sooooo much better now but I am loathe (scared actually) to stop it incase the severe ligtning pains come back. Best of luck.

For those considering upping the dose at night and reducing the dose in the am to reduce daytime tiredness......The half life ( or time Carbamazapine remains in your bloodstream) is long so that this methodology won't make much difference. You can of course get your carbamazepine levels checked by your Dr to make sure they are at a reasonable level. (Although this test is usually reserved for those requiring the drug for epilepsy/bipolar disorders).

Tegretol
 

I have been on tegretol off and on through out my life for seizures. At 200 mg, I was less affected by side effects. At 400 mg, I was tired and began to gain weight quite rapidly. Since another medication is better controlling my seizures, I dropped teh tegretol back to 200 mg and seem okay on that.

200mg daily is such a low dosage. Do you get any side effects? For me its just Drowiness when I get to 400mg.

You have TN? Where is the pain exactly? I don't think I have TN though.

Never had a weight problem.

For typical TN, the reason many nueros perscribe it first because it is actually a diagnostic agent as it works oftentimes.
I vary my dosage as pain varies. Usually in the 400 mg range but oftentimes I dose up to the 800mg level. Even at 800 mg, I've had times where the pain bled through. At those times a 1000 - 1200 mg level would often times affect my vision, amongst all the other nasty side affects this "dummy pill" delved out.
I speak of typical TN - mine is V3 (left jaw) for 20 years. I've had gamma, MVD, and rhizotomy. I still run low dosage of tegretol (200-400) daily because, well, just because.
I have tried other drugs folks speak of. My drug of choice for pain relief remains tegretol.