I’m going to stay on the theme of medications that can be used for seizures. Tegretol or carbamazepine has multiple different uses(mood, seizures, certain types of pain etc) and multiple unique side effects that need to be monitored for. I will probably take a couple of nights to explain some of the weird features of this drug. First, it is an enzyme inducer. There are many types of enzymes in the body that actually break down medications (amongst other things). So if a medication is an inducer, it will actually cause the enzymes to increase their activity and for individuals on multiple medications, this can be problematic as you may end up potentially undertreating someone (less drug in the body via quicker removal or metabolism). It isn’t always that simple with Tegretol, but always remember that it can induce metabolism of other drugs and potentially lead to lower blood levels of some drugs.
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I think that it is also important to point out that carbamazepine is also an autoinducer of CYP450, meaning that it can reduce its own drug levels in addition to the levels of other medications.