Nursing - Taking the sting out of trigeminal neuralgia
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008ControllingPain
QUESTION: My patient is being treated for trigeminal neuralgia (TN) with 100 mg of carbamazepine (Tegretol) b.i.d. He doesn’t have a seizure disorder, so why the anticonvulsant?
ANSWER: Considered an adjuvant analgesic, carbamazepine is the drug of choice for TN, also called tic douloureux. Up to 70% of patients using carbamazepine for TN report pain relief within 48 hours.
Trigeminal neuralgia is…
