Carbamazepine/Tegretol
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:16 pm
Hi,
I posted this on the pain meds forum but am copying it into UK for you all to read. May be difficult to persuade GPs to prescribe carbamazepine as it's not in the NICE guidelines for our type of neuralgia but it's definitely helping.....
In UK, Carbamazepine isn't a recommended treatment for peripheral or other neuropathy - which is probably the thread they follow for PN - but it is rec for trigeminal neuralgia. After failing with pregabalin, amitriptyline and nortriptyline, I asked for carbamazepine. I really didn't want gabapentin as pregabalin had given me Alzheimer's-like symptoms.
And the carbamazepine is working!! it's early days. I started on 100mg a day and increased each week to 200mg daily, 300mg etc. Now on 400mg. First week on 400mg was wonderful and nearly pain-free but now the pain is returning. It's a strange drug that speeds up its own metabolism so gets less effective!!.Also has effects on lots of other drugs too. The screaming pain has gone. Still standing for breakfast after a few days being able to sit but it is encouraging.
Dorothy
I posted this on the pain meds forum but am copying it into UK for you all to read. May be difficult to persuade GPs to prescribe carbamazepine as it's not in the NICE guidelines for our type of neuralgia but it's definitely helping.....
In UK, Carbamazepine isn't a recommended treatment for peripheral or other neuropathy - which is probably the thread they follow for PN - but it is rec for trigeminal neuralgia. After failing with pregabalin, amitriptyline and nortriptyline, I asked for carbamazepine. I really didn't want gabapentin as pregabalin had given me Alzheimer's-like symptoms.
And the carbamazepine is working!! it's early days. I started on 100mg a day and increased each week to 200mg daily, 300mg etc. Now on 400mg. First week on 400mg was wonderful and nearly pain-free but now the pain is returning. It's a strange drug that speeds up its own metabolism so gets less effective!!.Also has effects on lots of other drugs too. The screaming pain has gone. Still standing for breakfast after a few days being able to sit but it is encouraging.
Dorothy