- Epilepsy- all forms of seizures except absence and myoclonic seizures (first line).
- Trigerminal neuralgia.
- Bipolar mania unresponsive to lithium.
- Adults: 100-1600mg daily
- Children: 10-20mg/kg/day [depending on severity of illness and/or indication.]
- Restless leg syndrome (off-label):
- 100-600 mg every night at bedtime for up to 5 weeks
- Schizophrenia (off-label):
- 200-1300 mg per day for 2.5-8 weeks
Tablet:
- 200mg
- 400mg
Suspension:
- 20mg/mL
- Avoid eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice.
- Consider vitamin D supplementation in patients who are immobilised for long periods or who have inadequate sun exposure or dietary intake of calcium.
Antiepileptic. Apart from its anviconvulsant effect also has psychotropic and specific analgesic effects. Similar to tricyclic antidepressants both chemically and pharmacologically. It is a derivative of iminostilbene with a carbamyl group at position 5.
Mechanism of action is unknown. It’s thought to stabilize inactivated state of sodium channels, thereby making neurons less excitable.
May reduce activity of nucleus ventralis of the thalamus or decrease synaptic transmission or summation of temporal stimulation leading to neuronal discharge.
- Ataxia
- Dizziness
- Drowsiness
- GI disturbances
- Water retention
- Dilutional hyponatremia
- Headaches
- Erythrematous rashes
- Steven-Johnson Syndrome
- Alopecia
- Dry mouth
- Osteomalacia with prolonged treatment due to deficiency of vitamin D.
- Hypersensitivity reactions
- History of bone marrow suppression
- Concomitant use with MAO inhibitors
- Acute porphyria
- AV conduction abnormalities
- AL
- Atazanavir
- Efavirenz
- Linezolid
- Nevirapine
- Praziquantel
- Voriconazole
- Miconazole
- Albendazole
Drug Status
| Availability | Prescription only |
| Pregnancy | Category D; Contraindicated |
| Breastfeeding | Amount probably too small to be harmful |
| Schedule | Controlled |
| BRAND NAME | STRENGTH | FORMULATION | PACK SIZE | MANUFACTURER | DISTRIBUTOR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Azepine | 200mg | Tablet | 100’s, 500’s | Biodeal Labs | Biodeal Labs |
| Carbamazepine | 200mg | Tablet | 100’s | Medopharm C/O Medox | Medox Pharma |
| Carbatol | 200mg | Tablet | 100’s | Torrent Pharma C/O Medox | Medox Pharma |
| Carebama | 200mg | Capsule | 100’s | Careplus Ltd | Careplus Ltd |
| Carmapine | 200mg | Tablet | 100’s | Medisel Kenya | Medisel Kenya |
| Eptol | 200mg | Tablet | 100’s | Cosmos Ltd | Cosmos Ltd |
| Labtol | 200mg | Tablet | 100’s | Laboratory & Allied | Laboratory & Allied |
| Mazapine | 200mg | Tablet | 100’s | Asence Pharma | Medisel Kenya |
| Neurotrol | 200mg | Tablet | 100’s | Universal Corporation | Universal Corporation |
| Progretaz | 200mg | Tablet | 100’s | Pharma Life Science | Pharma Life Science |
| Taver | 200mg | Tablet | 50’s | Medochemie Ltd | Sunpar Pharma |
| Tegretol | 200mg | Tablet | 50’s | Novartis Pharma | Novartis Kenya |
| Tegretol | 20mg/mL | Suspension | 150mL | Novartis Pharma | Novartis Kenya |
| Tegretol CR | 200mg | Tablet | 50’s | Novartis Pharma | Novartis Kenya |
| Tegretol CR | 400mg | Tablet | 30’s | Novartis Pharma | Novartis Kenya |