I started taking this as a treatment for Muscle Spazms on the whole right side of my body during my second MS attack. It worked almost with the first dose, within a week I was no longer having Muscle Spazms at all, and within 3 weeks I was able to wean the dose down to half tab a day, then I discontinued completely. I now keep a bottle handy in case I have another attack, but so far I have not needed it.
Purpose:Nerve pain (neuralgia)(Started Feb 02, 2002)
Date
Dosage
Perceived effectiveness
Side Effects
Adherence
Burden
Apr 30, 2003
800 mg
Daily
Moderate
Moderate
Always
Not at all
Side effects:
Increased appetite, Mood swings, Dizziness
Date
Apr 30, 2003
Advice & Tips
Take medication as prescribed. If you need to stop medication make sure you wean yourself off of the drug according to your doctor due to causing very severe side effects including seizures.
In doing personal research, I found this medication to be exacerbating my condition and I consulted a new physician. I was told I was correct. I was admitted to an EMU an told I was now having hundreds of seizures per day as a result of having been on the medication for 10 years. This caused me to have to drop out of medical school and leave life long dreams and friends behind.
It worked very well for a long time. At my request, under my doctor's care, I stopped taking it to see if I could do without medicine for my epilepsy. I could not. He put me back on the tegretol, but I became toxic on it at any dose.
1) If you request a surgical evaluation and the doctor (in my case, Robert Gumnit, M.D.) refuses to let you out of the hospital forcing you to take more medication, get off of it if you can still think. If you cannot think another person will have to get you off of it and file a lawsuit in less than two years for you to have a chance to have a regular life again.
2) Over twenty percent of mothers I have talked with believe that "doctors know everything" and will not help their children survive. (And about 7000 deaths each year in the 1990s were due to a doctor killing a patient.) Make sure the person watching over you when you try a new medication will take action and not leave you a "zombie" (a nurse who told me I was within two days of death and my Dilantin count was up to 36.6 while getting off of Tegretol following the doctor's orders.
3) When I used over 500 mg/day of Tegretol, I could not think at all. When I got under 200 mg/day, then I regained control of my life. It was three years after my right hip shattered that I learned the Tegretol did that.
Updating results…
Moderate
0 helpful marks
First 
Pre
