Carbamazepine User Reviews & Ratings (Page 2)

• Anonymous
• Taken for 2 to 5 years
• November 29, 2012

Carbamazepine for Trigeminal Neuralgia "This medicine brought almost instant relief for a very painful neurological condition caused by a root canal procedure that went bad. I suffered for two years before someone suggested this medicine. After 4 doses, I was free of pain and continue to be. I understand I will be on this medicine for life."

• Zar...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• January 22, 2013

Carbamazepine for Bipolar Disorder "Loved Tegretol, kept my moods stable, worked well, felt calm and happy and in control for the first time in years. Until a Dr. decided it was okay to mix this with antibiotics along with the pill and sinus medication, I suffered from TENS. After being told 3 times it couldn't be that, I was so sick, I ended up in the hospital for 2 months. Now I remain untreated due to fear. However, what works for some doesn't work for others. This worked for me until my body decided I was allergic to it and everything else. Please be mindful of what you take with any medication!"

• TN ...
• April 23, 2016

Carbamazepine for Trigeminal Neuralgia "The first time I took Tegretol, it worked immediately and the pain went away. The pain comes and goes every year, and most importantly, the pain was not bad for the last 4 years that I did not even take Tegretol. This time the pain is unbearable, so I'm on Tegretol. Even with the medication, I still feel the shock once in a while. Definitely feels better with Tegretol. The side effects, for me, are sleepiness, weight gain, excitement with no reason."

• LFa...
• Taken for 1 to 2 years
• August 5, 2019

Carbamazepine for Trigeminal Neuralgia "After 5 long years of incorrect diagnosis, unnecessary dental and ear surgeries, I was finally diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) about 12 months ago and put on 3 x 200 mg of Tegretol daily. I have had horrific side effects with serious changes to my menstrual cycle (8-week non-stop bleeding), but it is still better than living with the TN episodes that I would have almost daily. I have recently been having milder episodes and may have to try something else."

• AB ...
• December 8, 2009

Carbamazepine for Trigeminal Neuralgia "I was having severe attacks several times a day, and within two days on Tegretol, they stopped. I still get very minor twinges at times from trigger areas. It has been two weeks plus now, and I can still recall beginning to brush my teeth and ending up on the floor, so I would be happy if I retain this level of control forever."

• soo...
• Taken for 10 years or more
• June 3, 2019

Carbamazepine for Trigeminal Neuralgia "I’ve been using Carbatrol for at least 15 to 20 years and have noticed my front teeth are getting loose. But after my second MVD, I am still 5 years pain-free. Except when my brother passed away in Feb 2019, I started crying and had three massive face pains, so I had to stop crying. So that was due to stress. So I keep up to date on my blood test, but I just realized a side effect is loose teeth, which is a very small price to pay for no pain."

• ren...
• February 18, 2008

Carbamazepine for Bipolar Disorder "My son, age 5, has used Tegretol for the past 6 months for bipolar disorder. It has shown a great improvement in his mood changes and has allowed others to accept him more. If the Tegretol is not given, we notice a huge mood swing and rage, and depression becomes more apparent."

• Fly...
• Taken for 10 years or more
• October 23, 2015

Carbamazepine for Bipolar Disorder "I have been on Tegretol for 15 years, and it definitely controls the hypomania and rapid cycling, though not the depression so well. It sort of leaves you feeling flat, but I had tried lithium, Depakote, and a few of the atypical antipsychotics, and they were too heavy-duty or left me with extreme weight gain. When I went on Tegretol, I had 50 pounds of extra weight from Depakote... it came off within 4 months. I am not thin now, as I have gotten older, but I suppose it is still the drug for me. At this stage of the game, I don't feel like trying other meds as I have to work and function. I also take a small dose of Lamictal too."

• Yan...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• September 3, 2015

Carbamazepine for Bipolar Disorder "I have been on Tegretol for 8 days now. I'm very happy with the results so far. My mood and energy seem to have improved. I'm taking Tegretol 200 mg twice a day along with Prozac and Ambien for my insomnia. The only side effect so far is a little bit lightheaded, but no biggie. I have begun a journal/to-do list, and I'm very happy when I cross off the items I have completed. In addition, in my daily journal, I'm drafting my daily feelings and my accomplishments. I would highly recommend this, as this is helping me out tremendously. My memory is not as sharp, and this helps big time."

• loc...
• March 5, 2017

Carbamazepine for Trigeminal Neuralgia "Diagnosed a year ago. The Tegretol helps with the pain massively, reducing it to more of an ache. My GP has me on a step-up and step-down routine so I'm not in them long term. It's working for me at the moment."

• Anonymous
• June 14, 2011

Carbamazepine for Bipolar Disorder "I had a very good experience on Tegretol. I had no side effects and was feeling better within three days. On top of stabilizing my moods, it also reduced my fibromyalgia pain by a good 90% (which also helped my mood a lot). The only reason I stopped taking it is because I'm working on becoming pregnant and it does have some nasty side effects there. The new medicines I'm on don't work quite as well, and I plan to go back on Tegretol as soon as I have a child."

• Lef...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• February 9, 2021

For Trigeminal Neuralgia "The first time I felt TN pain on my right cheek, I thought I had been hit by lightning. The second time, I started looking for stray current. Carbamazepine ER (extended release) definitely seems to be helping reduce the frequency of the shocks, unless I was coincidentally entering a remission. I was prescribed 2x/day. This gets me through the night, pain-free, but not through the day. I split the dose into 3x/day, which seems to work better, but still not enough: I end up slowing down, sitting down, and biding my time until the next dose. Getting through the day is going to take a higher dose or other strategies. Looking at facial pain and seizure/epilepsy websites has given me two tips to help medication effectiveness: 1) eat something to keep blood sugar from getting too low, and 2) choose foods that are low in glutamate, such as pears, apples, corn, or rice."

• fee...
• Taken for 6 months to 1 year
• March 14, 2013

For Bipolar Disorder "This is the ONLY thing that has worked for me. I was diagnosed with a 'nonspecified mood disorder', feeling totally out of control, no concentration, extremely irritable, suicidally depressed, angry, extremely everything, you name it. Tried Lexapro (small effect, then nothing), Effexor (killed my whole soul - left me feeling nothing at all and HORRIBLE to wean off and gained 30 pounds in two months), Zoloft (turned me into a raging psychotic mess - violently angry ideations, a real nightmare), Xanax (psychosis), self-medication (won't go into that, but obviously not a good idea). Anyway, you get the gist. This medication gives me NO side effects and just took away my 'craziness', it changed my life."

• Anonymous
• March 21, 2010

Carbamazepine for Bipolar Disorder "I've used Tegretol for the last three years and it's still working like it did in the beginning. My moods have been so much better over this time and I have a lot better outlook now versus the time before I started taking this medicine. I love these good moods I stay in throughout the day."

• The...
• Taken for 5 to 10 years
• August 12, 2014

Carbamazepine for Trigeminal Neuralgia "I have spent 17 years with atypical trigeminal neuralgia. This medicine gave me 4 years pain-free. It took a long time to work, seems like almost a year, but worked great for a time. Guess now it's on to something else."

• Anonymous
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• April 21, 2013

Carbamazepine for Schizoaffective Disorder "Tegretol is very effective for my mood swings and hallucinations. It helps slow the racing thoughts and hyperactivity, and thinking people are out to get me. It also helps with hearing voices. When I do not take it, everyone can notice a huge difference in how I act."

• Gur...
• August 26, 2016

Carbamazepine for Trigeminal Neuralgia "I started taking Tegretol 500 mg every night after dinner. The initial ten days were extremely tough.... very sleepy and was sleeping over 12 hours a day. Slowly, there was some improvement, but still very lethargic, struggling to concentrate, do day-to-day activities. Going back to the doctor for a reassessment. The pain is down almost 70% and has given me some relief and relaxed me a bit."

• lau...
• August 22, 2009

Carbamazepine for Trigeminal Neuralgia "I have been on Tegretol for only 2 weeks and it gave me much relief. Neurontin and Topamax did not work for me. Only side effect of Tegretol is sleepiness. I sleep very well at night. I was prescribed 200mg twice a day, but only take it once a day. Sometimes I take it twice a day if pain in the morning is constant."

• Rai...
• April 6, 2016

Carbamazepine for Trigeminal Neuralgia "Diagnosed with TN (glad to learn about it and find out I'm not dying of a brain tumor or something) - the pain is horrific. I've been on the generic form of Tegretol (Carbamazepine) 100 mg 3x per day for 3 weeks. I still have episodes of pain a couple of times a day, but at least I can walk around, talk, and eat without the excruciating pain I had been experiencing. Only downside is I feel like a zombie - tired and 'out of it' - but like others have said - I'd take that any day over the near constant pain I was having."

• Kim...
• June 20, 2013

Carbamazepine for Epilepsy "There is nothing more scary than the first few seconds when your seizure starts and nobody is around. Tegretol has saved my life! I am so thankful my doctor put me on these tablets: 200 mg three times a day, and I'm happily seizure-free."

• Ann...
• June 20, 2016

Carbamazepine for Trigeminal Neuralgia "I started taking Tegretol for TN, and it did greatly improve my ability to function. Pain was much duller during episodes and had stopped being totally debilitating. 6-7 weeks after use, I began to be so lethargic I couldn't get out of bed and was relying so much more on my husband to see to our toddler son. It was very worrying. I then developed severely enlarged glands under my chin, lumps on my neck, and started to feel generally unwell. I then had a full blood count done, and it returned a very low white blood cell count and abnormal-looking cells also. Enlarged spleen also occurred. Now being referred to hematology and had to be taken off Tegretol as they believe I am having quite a severe reaction to it."

• Fig...
• August 2, 2015

Carbamazepine for Bipolar Disorder "I currently take 300 mg of carbamazepine a day, 100 mg in the morning and 200 mg at night. Which is hard for me to remember the different doses because this medication causes me to forget everything. I also had really bad nausea and hot flashes when I first started taking it. I quit smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol on this drug. Super amazing accomplishments, but on the other hand, I have lost three jobs in six months. Before Tegretol, I was taking 300 mg of Seroquel XR a day, and it made me a completely unemotional zombie. So it's hard for me to control myself sometimes because I'm feeling all these things I haven't felt before. I hope Tegretol can work for me, though, and be my miracle drug, because changing meds is my living nightmare."

• jms...
• July 11, 2010

Carbamazepine for Bipolar Disorder "Tegretol has slowed the rapid cycling I was experiencing with bipolar. I have noticed improved mood. I currently take a large dose, so I experience side effects. It's my only complaint about the drug. I would recommend anyone who is considering Tegretol for Bipolar to have a backup for depressed mood, as I don't feel it's effective for extreme low mood, mainly for bipolar mania."

• mis...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• January 12, 2014

Carbamazepine for Trigeminal Neuralgia "I have been on Tegretol XR for about 3 weeks now for trigeminal neuralgia. I take 100 mg 2x a day. It took like two days for it to work. I only start to have pain from the attacks when I'm due for my next dose. And it's not nearly as bad. The only problem is that I'm already on pregabalin for fibromyalgia, so the Tegretol added makes me totally out of it. I can't remember things, I'm double drowsy all day, I zone out, and I don't like that it has negative interactions with about 500 medications, including Tylenol, which I usually take for breakthrough pain because ibuprofen doesn't work on me. So overall, it helps, but I really hope I don't have to take this for a long period of time."

• Cra...
• March 1, 2014

Carbamazepine for Bipolar Disorder "I have been taking Tegretol for a couple of years, and it really helps with my bipolar. I can notice a big difference compared to if I'm not taking it. I just don't like how it makes my head and tongue feel numb, but it's a small price to pay."