Penny Century Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 oxcarbazepine (trileptal) and carbamazepine (tegretol/epitol/carbatrol) are often discussed in literature on biplar that i've read as oxcarbazepine/carbamazepine, leading me to think they have the same effectivness profile. supposedly oxcarbazepine (trileptal) has fewer side effects than carbamazepine (tegretol/epitol/carbatrol) and i was wondering if that's true. what side effects did you get from either med? do you prefer one over the other, why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest_susanlynn_* Posted March 4, 2007 Share Posted March 4, 2007 oxcarbazepine (trileptal) and carbamazepine (tegretol/epitol/carbatrol) are often discussed in literature on biplar that i've read as oxcarbazepine/carbamazepine, leading me to think they have the same effectivness profile. supposedly oxcarbazepine (trileptal) has fewer side effects than carbamazepine (tegretol/epitol/carbatrol) and i was wondering if that's true. what side effects did you get from either med? do you prefer one over the other, why? Wow, it'd be great to try trileptal; I've just been on tegrtetol for many years. Many, many people are allergic to tegretol; the additional oxygen ion with trileptal, I believe (the difference), makes it much easier for people to put up with. Nevertheless, tegretol has more street cred. se- Now I find out I'm allergic to wheat. My skin has broken out really badly. Tegretol sorta sucks; it depends. Maybe I feel more isolated. Yadda yadda yadda. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cache-monkey Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 I've tried both, although Trileptal for a decidedly shorter period of time. That one made me stone cold numb on a pretty small dose. It also, I think, was the first med (out of a long line now) to trigger an allergic reponse in me. Mostly my bladder feeling irritated, but a little rhinitis. But what was worse was the numb, flat emptiness. Tegretol, on the other hand, could have been THE ONE. Yeah, start up was weird; got more anxious at first and then a little sedated. But when I hit 600 mg, OMFG. I felt *normal*. Like night and day. I actually felt like I had consistent energy as long as I got 8 hours of sleep. I felt more sociable. There wasn't this sharp border between me and "those normal people". I found myself talking to people at the grocery store and actually caring about the conversation, rather than putting on a front. And I started to get pretty emotional. But in a very good way, healthy happiness and sadness. Like I was actually dealing with the psychodynamic stuff for the first time in a long while. But unfortunately, I got an SJS-like reaction. Itching, particularly severe in the mucous membranes, and super elevated liver enzymes. From what I understand that's pretty rare (I turn out to be the 0.1%-er in drug reactions), but it was kind of soul-crushing for me to go off the Tegretol. Anyway, all this to say: I found them to be very different drugs. Maybe I didn't give Trileptal enough time, but then with the Tegretol I could feel the good part building from pretty early on. But my impression lines up with susanlynn: For a lot of people the side effects (particularly cognitive) are milder on the Trileptal, although not for me (SJS aside). But Tegretol has much more data backing it as a mood stabilizer. I've read stories from a number of people that the Tegretol was a magic bullet of sorts, and I just don't see that with Trileptal. But in the end it's probably a function of what your specific brain cooties are, and which med touches them more... Good luck, cache-monkey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sallie21 Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 I was on Tegretol for about ten months. Starting up, for about three weeks or so, it was pretty sedating...but then I was coming down from a major, major manic episode so that might have had something to do with being so tired. Still. Other than that, I can't say I had any serious side effects other than some sometimes-intense word finding problems. My real problems with Tegretol were: It ate up my other drugs, especially Seroquel. It metabolizes so many things and it can be really hard to know what you're getting of the other drugs you're taking. It literally ATE Vicodin and Codeine when I had a root canal. I can't express how painful that experience was. Thanks, Tegretol. It didn't seem to do it for me. My moods pretty much sucked while I was on it. I've done much better on my present cocktail of Lamictal, Seroquel and Topamax. But everybody's different. My previous pdoc did mention several times that she thought it might be a good idea to switch me to Trileptal because it wouldn't eat up the other drugs, but there just isn't a lot of positive research on that drug. Don't know the reasons... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zsandoz Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 oxcarbazepine (trileptal) and carbamazepine (tegretol/epitol/carbatrol) are often discussed in literature on biplar that i've read as oxcarbazepine/carbamazepine, leading me to think they have the same effectivness profile. supposedly oxcarbazepine (trileptal) has fewer side effects than carbamazepine (tegretol/epitol/carbatrol) and i was wondering if that's true. what side effects did you get from either med? do you prefer one over the other, why? what i can say about the side effects of trileptal is *vom* (nausea) and tiredness. it feels like ingesting something really heavy at first anyways, the only persistent side effect is being sleepy (and sleeping 12 hours a day) if your dose is too high. i leveled out at 600mg/day (for seizures and bipolar) because i would sleep all day on 900mg. But i had no side effects after awhile, and every time i switched off it and came back to it i wouldnt get the original side effects as much. so i mustve built up a tolerance for it. in principle, the two should be the same, but the dosage equivalence is shakey and variable (biological variability).. so you dont know what dose you will need until you try it out, even though its something like 200mg tegretol = 300mg trileptal or something like that. the only reason its not approved for bipolar is the cost of the necessary studies and the patent life running out. you might find it entertaining that trileptal is manufactured by sandoz pharm (tho not zsandoz pharm) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invictus61101 Posted March 23, 2007 Share Posted March 23, 2007 I took Trileptal at 1200 mg and I LOVED it. But, it gave me THE rash. I didn't have any other side effects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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