Abstract

Carbamazepine (Tegretol - Geigy) gives considerable relief from pain in trigeminal neuralgia in the majority of patients.¹ Although it was initially introduced as an anticonvulsant, it is only recently that the manufacturers have advocated its use, either alone or in addition to other anticonvulsants, in the treatment of ‘grand mal’ and temporal lobe epilepsy. The drug is an iminodibenzyl derivative and is chemically related to the antidepressant imipramine. It raises the threshold for electrical and strychnine convulsions in animals.²