Tegretol is controlling some of the pain of my present flare up which I have had for the past month and has been very draining apart from an area directly under my eye and at the side of my nose which is persistently sore to the touch and I am unable to wash. Still feeling out of sorts with the meds so don't want to up them. If I'm lucky enough to go into remission at what rate should I withdraw from meds, I'm taking 400mg per day.
My guess is that you're feeling out of sorts because of the pain. 600mg of tegretol is controlling my pain and I am so grateful to not be in pain! Don't be afraid of upping the dose if it will bring you relief. That pain is so horrible! I still need to be careful how I touch my face. But as I said, I'm grateful for the relief tegretol has provided. God bless!
My neurologist said to back off 1/2tablet after several months of no pain. If still no pain after 4 days back off another 1/2 tablet for 4 days. And so on. If pain returns, up dosage by 1/2 tablet until pain goes away. Best to discuss this with your neurologist.
Hi Folks
Yes you need to come off or reduce a lot of these antiepeleptics slowly otherwise you risk having a seizure. The regime summarised above looks about right but as you say, its best to do it in agreement with your practitioner or your neurologist. Actually, tegretol is usually quite well tolerated by lots of people and some go up to high doses. I'm on 1200-1600mg day in times of bad pain otherwise I have no relief. I'm a big bloke and can take that dose very well with not too many side effects. This can mess up your blood sodium levels (hyponatremia) so you need to keep an eye on that with fairly regular blood tests.
Cheers
Big D