When and how to choose Carbamazepine medication in the treatment of epilepsy?
Epilepsy is a difficult disease, with not yet fully known cause. In the treatment of the epilepsy many drugs are used, and it is needed specifically adjusted to each patient.
What is Tegretol
Tegretol or Carbamazepine is medicine which is different from other anti-epileptic drugs by the increasing number of indications. It has anticonvulsant, sedative, antidepressant, miorelaxant, inhibition effect on neuromuscular conduction. It is effective in the treatment complex partial seizures, trigeminal neuralgia, in the prophylaxis of generalized epilepsy (grand mal), focal attacks, and petit mal attacks. Tegretol has well absorbed, and well passes into the tissues, a concentration in CSF is the same as in plasma. Passes the placenta, pass is in the milk of nursing mothers, metabolizing in the liver It is excreted via the urine and feces.
Generic Tegretol for sale
Tegretol Dosage
Dosage is individual and during therapy should be monitoring drug levels in serum. The patient must not take higher doses than prescribed. The sudden withdrawal of this drug may lead to epileptic seizures or status epilepticus, and therefore if therapy is need to be discontinued this should be a gradually.
Precautions and side effects
Precautions are necessary for heart and kidney patients, people with liver disease, people with glaucoma, with mental diseases. During therapy, the use of alcohol is not allowed.
Side reactions occurring at the beginning of therapy, and usually disappear after a few days. It appears drowsiness, dizziness, unconsciousness, sometimes difficult mental and motor disorders, but compared with other drugs used in the treatment of epilepsy the side effects are less pronounced. Rarely can sustain damaging of bone marrow and hypersensitivity reactions, and if it occurs, should be immediately stop with the therapy.
Overdose and interactions
When it comes to overdose there is anuria, oliguria, ataxia, respiratory depression, nausea, agitation, involuntary movements, mydriasis, and nystagmus. Tegretol effects on mental and physical ability, so when patient take this medicine, he is prohibited from driving. The drug should not be used when there is allergy to carbamazepine or drugs similar to him, in patients in whom atrioventricular block occurred, also in hematologic diseases.
Also, since Carbamazepine comes into reaction with some drugs (antidepressants, anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, Ca channel blockers Doxycycline, Erythromycin, MAO inhibitors, Isoniazid, oral anticoagulant),during their application should not be taken.