Interesting Experience

[epileric]

I posted recently how I was put on an antibiotic that interacts with my tegretol by raising the levels of it in my blood & hence increasing the side-effects.

Something that happened during that time was I got a panic attack. I rarely get them but when under stressful situations I might get one, usually when I'm not distracted & focus on the situation. It was over something pretty silly too. I'd been talking to someone online & they never sent a message back (really wasn't much else to say). I started to get very upset that I might have offended the individual & having the side-effect of not thinking clearly made me feel very helpless to communicate properly (still not sure if that feeling is true or imagined). Cognitively I was very aware that there is no reason to be upset I didn't hear back from my friend but my emotions refused to acknowledge that & I was pretty stressed until the day after my dosage was lowered.

Yesterday I talked to a Registered Nurse who told me to cut my dose of tegretol in half & that worked. I feel closer to normal again but it's now that I realized that the panic attacks & how my emotions going wild are a side-effect. I've been on Tegretol for decades so I've always thought of this behaviour to be just part of who I am. There is something nice about knowing this "quirk" of mine is just a side-effect (despite still having to live with it) however the closest thing I could find when looking up tegretols side-effects is "changes in personality". Only 1 out of all the places I looked (online & off) said "agitation". Something to be aware of for those who have recently started carbamazapine.

[Zoofemme]

Eric...I had to brush the coffee ground off of them (had just tossed them, lol) but all 3 of the inserts on my scripts say "like other anti-epileptic drugs, blah, blah, blah...may gause new or worse anxiety, feeling agitated or restless, panic attacks other unususual changes in behavior or mood." The wording is exactly the same on the inserts for the generics I take of Trileptal, lamictal and Topomax...it does not say that anywhere on the insert of the stash I have left of name brand trileptal (Novartis). Makes me half wonderr if some pharmacies use some kind of "generic" database too??? Since I'm thinking "generic insert", I looked up the novortis one for Tegretol...the only agitation issure it mentions is in the elderly ...you're not elderly are you (?)....LOL. THe thing is, the insert I found hadn't been updated since 2003 so don't think it amounts to a hill of beans anymore either

[Nakamova]

The med side effects on personality can emerge slowly, so that it's hard to notice. Before you know it you just assume that the side effects are "you". When I was on Zonegran, I slowly became a little depressed and cranky. I'm usually upbeat and mellow, so when I started to lose my temper over little things, a light went on and I knew I was gonna have to switch meds.