I've posted here before but was hoping someone could give me some advice.

When I was about 18 years old, I had a few episodes of "forced thinking" where thoughts would rush into my head but nothing further would happen. They seemed to happen when I drank alcohol. They dissappeared for a while and then in 1999 I had a grand mal seizure in my sleep after a period of EXTREME stress, extreme dehydration (I only had alcohol to drink all day) and possible heat exhaustion. I saw a neuro and was put on tegretol right away. I haven't had any problems and so they decided to taper my tegretol. That's when the anxiety attacks started. I thought I was having heart attacks and my sleep was affected. I did not have any seizures though. I February of this year, I was completely off my seizure meds. I do take Lexapro (for depression) and Klonopin (for anxiety) and no longer drink alcohol. I still have major anxiety and now am having these weird things where memories pop into my head for no reason. My psychiatrist thinks it's part of my anxiety because I'm CONSTANTLY thinking about seizures. I have had 3 EEG's and 3 MRI's (all normal). I know I suffer from anxiety but the meds I'm on for it completely dull my emotions. I'm neither sad nor happy and that's almost worse. I'm also EXTREMELY moody now and suffer migraines. To make a long story short, the last time I was truly happy and felt like myself was when I was on the tegretol. My psychiatrist is like "yeah, but how do you know if you need it or not if you don't try to stay off of it?" I have given it a chance and want to go back on. Is tegretol used for other stuff besides seizures (such as mood, migraines, or anxiety?) I see my psychiatrist in June and really want to get back on the Tegretol. Any thoughts?

I found this on mentalhealth.com---hope it helps a little--just type tegretol into any search engine and it will bring up a whole bunch of stuff for you to look at.

Betty




Trigeminal Neuralgia:
For the symptomatic relief of pain of trigeminal neuralgia only during periods of exacerbation of true or primary trigeminal neuralgia (tic douloureux). It should not be used preventively during periods of remission. In some patients, carbamazepine has relieved glossopharyngeal neuralgia. For patients who fail to respond to carbamazepine, or who are sensitive to the drug, recourse to other accepted measures must be considered.

Carbamazepine is not a simple analgesic and should not be used to relieve trivial facial pains or headaches.

Treatment of Acute Mania and Prophylaxis in Bipolar (Manic-Depressive) Disorders:
Carbamazepine may be used as a monotherapy or as an adjunct to lithium in the treatment of acute mania or prophylaxis of bipolar (manic-depressive) disorders in patients who are resistant to or are intolerant of conventional antimanic drugs. Carbamazepine may be a useful alternative to neuroleptics in such patients. Patients with severe mania, dysphoric mania or rapid cycling who are non-responsive to lithium may show a positive response when treated with carbamazepine.

It is important to note that these recommendations are based on extensive clinical experience and some clinical trials versus active comparison agents.

Carbamazepine has been found useful in: the management of psychomotor (temporal lobe) epilepsy and, as an adjunct, in some patients with secondary or partial epilepsy with complex symptomatology or secondarily generalized seizures, when administered in combination with other antiepileptic medication. As an alternative medication in patients with generalized tonic-clonic seizures who are experiencing marked side effects or fail to respond to other anticonvulsant drugs.

Carbamazepine is not effective in controlling petit mal, minor motor, myoclonic and predominantly unilateral seizures, and does not prevent the generalization of epileptic discharge. Moreover, exacerbation of seizures may occasionally occur in patients with atypical absences.