The authors describe a case of a 37-year-old Malay lady with an unusually slow carbamazepine clearance, which may be related to genetic polymorphisms of drug metabolizing enzymes and transporters. When given a small daily dose of 200 mg immediate-release carbamazepine, this patient experienced drowsiness. Subsequently, she reduced her carbamazepine dose to 200 mg twice a week (on Mondays and Fr...

The EEG and clinical records were reviewed of 85 subjects who had been treated for complex partial seizures with carbamazepine alone or with a combination of carbamazepine and sodium valproate. There was a correlation between the site of the EEG abnormality and the therapeutic response to anticonvulsant therapy. Subjects who had a left sided temporal lobe EEG abnormality responded better to car...

Twenty-six in-patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual version IV (DSM-IV) criteria for opioid dependence were selected at random to receive either a combination of an 11-day low-dose buprenorphine and a 14-day carbamazepine regimen (n = 14) or a combination of an 11-day methadone and a 14-day carbamazepine regimen (n = 12) in a double-blind, randomized 14-day in-patient detoxification t...

Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) is a rare but life-threatening skin reaction disease and carbamazepine is one of its most common causes. We report a case of SJS secondary to carbamazepine in a patient with previous pruritus due to carbamazepine which was given for treatment of trigeminal neuralgia. We would like to caution all providers that carbamazepine readministration should be avoided in th...

The present study was aimed to investigate the effects of carbamazepine, an antiepileptic drug, on sperm count in rats. Male Wistar rats were treated with carbamazepine at doses of 9, 18, and 36 mg/kg for five consecutive days. Following the last exposure, on days 14 and 35, spermatozoa were collected from epididymis and counted. On day 14, carbamazepine treatment decreased the sperm number in ...

Carbamazepine is used to control seizures. Its common side effects are sleep disorders, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, polydipsia, irritability, ataxia, and diplopia. Involvement of the immune system is rare, and few cases of decreased immunoglobulin levels have been reported. We describe a patient with low immunoglobulin levels due to carbamazepine use who presented with recurrent urinary tract i...

A 32-year-old female, with a history of secondarily-generalized convulsive epilepsy, mental retardation, and a psychiatric illness, developed neuroleptic malignant syndrome while receiving carbamazepine and amitriptyline concurrently. We hypothesize that the addition of amitriptyline to carbamazepine caused a decrease in the serum level of carbamazepine, resulting in NMS. We conclude that combi...

Plasma concentrations of carbamazepine were monitored in 9 pregnant epileptic patients treated with the drug alone at constant doses during pregnancy and for at least 3 months after delivery. In addition, plasma concentrations of the metabolite, carbamazepine 10,11-epoxide were measured in 6 of the 9 patients. Plasma carbamazepine concentrations were fairly stable during pregnancy, and carbamaz...