Tegretol

Tegretol comes in a class of drugs, known as anticonvulsants and its function is to reduce the impulses of nerve which cause seizures and pain. It is used to treat seizures and nerve pain like trigeminal neuralgia and diabetic neuropathy and it is also helpful in the treatment of bipolar disorder. Doctors also prescribe the medication for some other purposes than those that are listed above.

You cannot take the medication if you are allergic to tricyclic antidepressant, like amitriptyline, comipramine, doxepin, desipramine, amoxapine, imipramine, nortriptyline, if you have a history of bone marrow suppression or if you have used MAO inhibitor like isocarboxazid, tranylcypromine, phenelzine, or selegiline in the past 14 days. There are some medical conditions in which you need to inform your doctor before taking the medication, like if you have a history of serious side effects from any drug, liver disease, heart disease or congestive heart failure, lupus, history of mental illness, or glaucoma, because in the above conditions, you are unable to take the medication or you have to get special monitoring from your doctor. The medication belongs to FDA pregnancy category D which is likely to cause harm to an unborn baby so if you are pregnant or want to be pregnant then first consult with your doctor and you should use non-hormone form of birth control while taking the medication. The medication also passes into milk of nursing mother and may be harmful to nursing baby.



Take the medication as prescribed to you by your doctor and don’t try to take larger amount of the medication. To get better results, your doctor may change your dose. Take each does of the medication with one glass of water. You should not chew or crush the tablet but take it as a whole because it is formulated to releases the drug slowly in the stomach. So if you crush or break the pill then the whole drug would be released in one time. If it is difficult to swallow the capsule then sprinkle the drug into a spoonful of pudding or applesauce and then take it. The oral suspension of the medication will be shaking before taking and get a measuring spoon to take a correct measure of dose. The tablet form of the medication must be chewed before swallowing it.

If you miss a dose then take it as soon as you get remembered and if the time is near to take the next scheduled dose then skip the missed dose and follow your regular schedule of doses. It may be possible that you can experience overdose. In that case, you should get medical help. The symptoms of overdose include shallow breathing, fast heartbeat, nausea, vomiting, slurred speech, feeling light-headed or fainting, staggering walk, seizures, tremors, restlessness, muscles twitches, and urinating less.

If you experience side effects then get help from your doctor. These include difficulty in breathing, swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat. Other severe side effects include fever, sore throat, body aches, flu symptoms, nausea, stomach pain, loss of appetite, dark urine, and urinating less than usual.