Has anyone taken trileptal. Gosh, I’d love to get off of the brain numbing neurontin. I don’t think it’s helping, but I don’t know how to verify. Thanks!
That’s great news, Nancy
Nancy Price said:
I am taking it now and like it. i don’t feel so tired I finally can do something and it helps my pain.
Jean-
I take trileptal. I am extremely sensitive to medications and it took me a while to adjust to the sleepiness that it caused for me. That said, I have gotten more relief from Trileptal than I did with Neurontin. I am in the process of adding Lamictal to my drug regimen and maybe going off Trileptal if Lamictal works. Good luck and I hope it works for you! Johanna
Hi there. Like you, I could not handle Neurontin at all. It was like I had been drinking heavily all of the time. I also couldn’t handle Lamictal, that someone else mentioned taking, because I often had severe double vision. I take Trileptal now and do have some cognitive issues but not the drunken feeling like Neurontin. I am in the process of switching to Topamax because Trileptal doesn’t do as well at controlling my pain. My Neurologist just keeps trying different meds to see which helps the most with the least cognitive issues and I guess I am lucky to have him. Good luck to you.
Debbie
I took Trilepal for a while, at the insistance of my general medicine doc. Like most other meds I’ve tried, it did nothing for me.
I sincerely hope you have success with it.
I tried neorontin, trileptal and topamax.
The side effects of neurontin were too much to handle and it still didn’t take away all my pain.
Most recently I’ve been on trileptal and topamax. This also helped but didn’t take all my pain away unless I was on the maximum dose (but my body couldn’t handle this). Nonetheless, this regimen definitely made it more bearable. Side effects weren’t nearly as bad as neurontin. I was very tired all the time though, often at a loss for words and had to be very careful to take the meds exactly 12 hours apart or I would get double vision and nausea. (Yes - that was better side effects than the other meds sadly)
Good luck in finding a good regimen. Listen to your body, both the pain and how you are responding to the medications! We are all very different.
Hi everyone,
Thankyou so much for your responses! I have been reading, but I haven’t had a chance to respond because I have started back to work which has been very very hard. I am not even sure how long I will last 
I try not to feel sorry for myself, but I feel heartbroken…but maybe I shouldn’t because I have heard of others whose stories are so sad at the moment. I only wish for you all to feel better!
I’m on 1200mg of Trileptal (600mg 2x a day) and it works really quite well. I’ve never tried anything else. I haven’t experienced any side effects at all. It’s not magic in that I have no pain at all but since I went on it I haven’t had a single mind bending, 1-4 hour, lighting bolt to the face attack. The only problem I generally have is brushing my teeth or eating a sandwich etc.
Hi Jean -
My mom, the TN patient, has been on Trileptal/Oxcarbmazapine ever since diagnosis. It help control her pain but it took us a long time to find the right dosage and schedule. However, the side effects, were unpleasant. Having only been on this one drug, we are not able to compare them as good or bad versus the others. But my mom was always exhausted, had a very heard time remembering things, would forget words/names constantly and would get double vision and dizzy and nauseous on a regular basis, although never on a predictable basis. She did not like being on the meds. But as everyone says, we are all individuals and we all react differently. Hope you are able to find the right medication for you! Best of luck!
-Beth
Hi!
I am also on trileptal and I have the same side effects that Beth described “always exhausted, had a very heard time remembering things, would forget words/names constantly and would get double vision and dizzy and nauseous on a regular basis, although never on a predictable basis.” <–this describes my experience perfectly. The weirdness that happens when you try to remember a word is somewhat disturbing. However, as many of the folks on this board have described, these effects are better than shocking, stabbing, intense pains throughout the day.