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| Carbamazepine Carbamazepine (sold under the brand-names Biston, Calepsin, Carbatrol, Epitol, Equetro, Finlepsin, Sirtal, Stazepine, Tegretol, Telesmin, Timonil) is an anticonvulsant and mood stabilizing drug, used primarily in the treatment of epilepsy and bipolar disorder. It is also used to treat schizophrenia and trigeminal neuralgia. Social Security Disability For Bipolars. Self-help guide for bipoars to win Social Security disability benefits. Mechanisms Carbamazepine and its derivatives' action mechanism is relatively well understood. Voltage gated sodium channels are the molecular pores that allow brain cells (neurons) to generate action potentials, the electrical event that allows neurons to communicate over long distances. After the sodium channels open, to start the action potential, they inactivate, essentially closing the channel. Carbamazepine stabilizes the inactivated state of sodium channels, meaning that fewer sodium channels are available to open, making brain cells less excitable. Side effects Carbamazepine renders birth control pills ineffective. Common side effects include drowsiness, motor-coordination impairment and/or upset stomach. Taken every twelve hours, the Tegretol XR or Carbatrol preparations can greatly increase tolerability. Less common side effects include blurry or double vision and/or the temporary or mild loss of blood cells or platelets. In rare cases the latter can be life-threatening if unnoticed, so frequent blood tests are required during the first few months' use, followed by three or four tests per year. There are also reports of a bizarre auditory side effect, whereby patients perceive musical notes about a semitone lower than their actual pitch (so middle C would be heard as the note B3 just below it, etc). Oxcarbazepine, a derivative of carbamazepine, has fewer and less serious side effects. Carbamazepine can cause SIADH since it potenciates the action of ADH(vasopresin) History Carbamazepine was discovered by chemist Walter Schindler at J.R. Geigy AG (now part of Novartis) in Basel, Switzerland, in 1953. Schindler then synthesized the drug in 1960, before its anti-epileptic properties had been discovered. Carbamazepine was first marketed as a drug to treat trigeminal neuralgia in 1962. It has been used as an anticonvulsant in the UK since 1965, but only approved in the U.S. since 1974. |