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).

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.