RE: trileptal

January 5, 2003

:

Hi! How are you? I have been taking Trileptal for 5 yrs now and

yes I do have blood levels checked about every 4-6 months, depending on how

the control is doing. Trileptal is a version of Tegretol and that is why it

is written down as the oxcarbazepine blood level check when sent to the lab.

If the blood levels get to high for a long period of time then it can do

liver damage. But the neurologists are usually careful to keep such a check

on it.

I wish the best of luck with it. Look for the same side affects as you do

with the tegretol. I found it to make me unusally thristy and also nervous

for the first 4 weeks. After that I was ok. I also take Keppra which makes

me hyper.

Take care and keep in touch. Happy New Year to you and your family.

January 6, 2003

:

On our form for blood level it is not written as " oxcarbazepine " it is

written as " carbamazepine " . That's why I'm asking... " ox " is Trileptal and

the other is Tegretol. I do realize that the two drugs are close relatives.

>From: 42122@...

>Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2003 13:43:54 EST

>

>:

> Hi! How are you? I have been taking Trileptal for 5 yrs now

>and

>yes I do have blood levels checked about every 4-6 months, depending on how

>the control is doing. Trileptal is a version of Tegretol and that is why

>it

>is written down as the oxcarbazepine blood level check when sent to the

>lab.

> If the blood levels get to high for a long period of time then it can do

>liver damage. But the neurologists are usually careful to keep such a

>check

>on it.

> I wish the best of luck with it. Look for the same side affects as you

>do

>with the tegretol. I found it to make me unusally thristy and also nervous

>for the first 4 weeks. After that I was ok. I also take Keppra which

>makes

>me hyper.

> Take care and keep in touch. Happy New Year to you and your family.

>

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January 13, 2003

> Hi everyone:

> I have a question for anyone who has been on Trileptal. Did your doctor

> check periodically for drug level in your blood? If so, what drug did they

> test for? My son has just started on Trileptal (oxcarbazepine) and the

> doctor has asked for a check of carbemazepine (Tegretol) in his blood. The

> doctor says that the liver converts it so that's what to check for, but I

> just wanted to check with all you folks.

>

> Thanks.

>

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April 26, 2005

Well, just after I told you how wonderful trileptal has been for Beth (it's

not " heavy " for her, BTW), we run into a " challenge " because of it. As you

all know, I was planning to put beth on birth control pills, but after

checking with our psychiatrist, he said the low-cycle pills they were

prescribing wouldn't be strong enough because of the trileptal. He said

she'd need the 150 ones, and when I went back to the gynocologist, they

refuse to prescribe the 150's because of the high estrogen level...and

beth's young age (meaning she'd be on them for a long time probably). They

both recommend the shot, which beth wants NOTHING to do with....so now beth

is very angry and panicky...and wants me to call the psychiatrist

IMMEDIATELY to make an appointment to get this worked out!

Ah, it was so nice while it lasted...peace and quiet....

Ha...

She's calmed down now...her 'mini rages' don't last anything like they used

to and her eyes are not anything like they used to be (wild and scary

looking). Yay trileptal and seroquel!

But I will have to push on this and try to figure out what our options are,

and pray that Beth will be rational and mature enough to listen and not

scream at me as we're doing it.

Meanwhile, it's PROM weekend...Saturday! We got acrylic nails on tonight; we

have the dress, the shoes, the hair appointment is Saturday morning.....

Maralee

Hi Maralee,

I'm glad Trileptal has worked well for your daughter. It has certainly

helped Sasha to function without throwing hissy fits about everything under

the sun. We noticed, in addition to helping to control the raging (which I

would describe as prolonged and violent), that Trileptal helped dampen all

the tantrums we'd been seeing. Sasha used to stamp his feet a lot and

scream hurtful language and threaten to be a brat if we didn't do something

for him -- a tactic that never worked with us, by the way. So it is a

relief not to have to deal with that on an hourly basis.

One thing I don't like about Trileptal is that it is " heavy. " Sasha

describes it as a fog that settles down on him, somewhat buffering him from

the world. He says it can make it harder for him to think. When I relayed

this to his psychiatrist, Dr. C said, " Yep, that sounds about right. " For

several months, something in me recoiled when I gave him this med. And I

still struggle with this side effect. For this reason, we keep Sasha on the

lowest possible dose. He does a bit better mood-wise on a bigger dose, but

he was pretty foggy and had a hard time with some of his school work.

The behavior we are seeing is mainly due to AS at this point. So I'm not

sure I would recommend Risperdal and Trileptal for kids without mood

problems (raging, hypersexual, expansive, less than truthful, giddy,

depressed, nightmare-plagued, phobic, aggressive), because they don't seem

to alleviate any of the autistic symptoms. Still, I'm told Risperdal can be

helpful with taking the " edge " off some autistic children. It seems to work

in part by alleviating anxiety -- or that sort of full-steam-build-up,

pressured behavior that can result in blow-ups.

April 26, 2005

Maralee,

I would check out the patch as another alternative, if Beth is really against

the shot. The patch has to be changed weekly, plus the stay on in water or any

activity,

RE: ( ) trileptal