It hurts when I do this...'

Hello. I know it has not even been 24 hours since I last posted, but I had a Spanish class unexpectedly cancel on me today, so I thought I should take advantage of the time.

It seems that things are going along ok. I am currently tied for 3rd place amongst the interns. I need to get some surveys going so that I can get above the rest. But, that is ok, because this weekend, as long as they don't call me into the hospital, I can get some more surveys. FINALLY the laptop battery I bought online showed up and is working just fine, so I can harrass people at work and be up another 100+ surveys in a few hours worth of effort.
That is the plan anyway. The hospital has been really busy the last few weeks, so I am hoping that Saturday it will be slow enough that I can get some of this stuff done.

Anyway, it is now time to unveil this weeks 'DotW' feature.
This week I have decided to focus on another neurological medication.

I am going to write about Tegretol today. This is another medication that I have had personal interaction with. In previous posts I have mentioned that I worked in a group home with the developmentally disabled and have personally administered some anti-convulsants and other medications. Tegretol was one of those medications that I would personally assist with.

However, I am not going to talk about it as a medication for seizures I am going to focus on it as a medication that is used for chronic nerve pain.
The Tegretol molecule looks like this
(Actually when I was looking up the information for this molecule I ran across a picture of someone who had tatooed a Seratonin molecule on their hip. Not relevant to this blog, but interesting nonetheless. It was a well done tatoo):

Tegretol is also known as Carbamazepine, in fact, like most of the drugs I have reviewed I knew them by their brand names and not their generic name. Tegretol works by blocking the sodium gateways in nerve channels. It halts or slows the rapid firing of neuron transmission. Basically it stops the nerves from being able to send signals. This makes Tegretol useful for both seizure activity and for neuropathic, or simply - nerve - pain.
(http://www.neuroskills.com/tbi/ac.shtml)

Personally I have only seen this medication prescribed for seizure activity. When I have dealt with neruopathic pain in a healthcare situation I have seen Neurontin prescribed. I spoke about Neurontin in a previous blog post, and I feel that that medication works fairly well.
In fact, I would say that there are 3 major medications that come to mind when dealing with both nerve pain and seizure activity. Those medications are, in no particular order: Topamax, Tegretol and Neurontin.
I have seen these medications in both of my past jobs in which I have worked with seizure disorders and neuropathic pain, and I think they work fairly well.

We just need to wait until those whom I have contacted about doing surveys for their neurological medications find time to fill out some surveys and we can see what they think!