My Oxcarbazepine Experience

[SilentLoofa74]

My new psychiatrist seemed good to me overall. He prescribed me the generic form of Trileptal, which is oxcarbazepine. 300 mg twice a day.

I used it for about 10 days. Initially it made me feel calm. The first three days or so, I needed to take short naps once or twice a day. During such a nap, I slept for about 20 minutes, but felt as if I had been asleep for two hours, and I felt very rested when I woke up. I've been more level overall, and several times, I was able to get up early in the morning, say 4:30 AM.

 

Last Wednesday night (12 Feb 2014), I had an allergic reaction to the oxcarbazepine. I was panicked, and very confused. I wasn't thinking normally. I had very shallow breathing, and a shallow pulse. I felt my heart might stop. Now I think maybe I should have called an ambulance, but I didn't think of that at the time. Also, at the time, I didn't even think to blame the medication. I felt like I could feel the moon and Mercury pulling on me, and I blamed them and other things for making me feel weird.

I felt claustrophobic, and the rather spacious room I was staying in felt like a prison.

 

I talked to my pdoc over the phone twice. He said stop taking the meds, and take Benadryl. Go to the ER if necessary, but otherwise just rest and let the oxcarbazepine get out of my system.

 

Now, three nights later, I'm still recovering. I have a sore throat, a very painful tongue, and bad sores in my mouth.

 

I haven't eaten much. It hurts to eat because of the mouth sores and my appetite is messed up. I've used oral lidocaine and been able to eat some.

[crtclms]

To be honest, based on what you have said so far, to me, it sounds like a panic attack, maybe unrelated to the med; did you have hives or rashes or anything? I'm not trying to gainsay you, it's just that you listed a lot of the symptoms of a panic attack.

[SilentLoofa74]

sylvan:

I did go get checked out. I went to an urgent care yesterday. The doc there said the throat looked like strep (although it didn't feel as bad as I would expect for strep), and the sores looked like herpes 1. He gave me amoxicillin pills and nystatin rinse. Now that I think about it, I don't know why he didn't give me an antiviral since herpes 1 is viral. To me, the sores look like maybe herpes 1 and thrush at the same time. There's a big yellow lump in my lower lip, and also thin white layers of stuff, and then smaller white looking spots.

 

crtclms:

It does seem like a panic attack, but it isn't normal for me to have those. I think perhaps the meds caused the panic attack. Not sure though. However, when I called my pdoc the morning after the attack, he said stop the meds.