An Overview of Trileptal for Nerve Pain
Trileptal® (
oxcarbazepine) is a prescription medication approved to treat
seizures in people with
epilepsy. However, like many other
seizure medications, it may also be effective for nerve pain treatment (although it is not approved for this use). This means that when prescribed for nerve pain, Trileptal is being used "
off-label."
There are several different types of pain. Nerve pain can be one of the most bothersome and frustrating types of pain. Nerve pain usually results from damage to a nerve, which causes the nerve to send pain signals to the brain (even though there is often no physical cause for the pain). Nerve damage can be caused by infections (such as
shingles), other medical conditions (such as
diabetes or trigeminal neuralgia), tumors, or physical damage (from injury or surgery).
Trileptal is a seizure medication that is closely related to
carbamazepine (
Epitol®,
Equetro™,
Tegretol®, Tegretol
® XR), an older seizure medication. Since carbamazepine is often effective for nerve pain, it seems reasonable to expect that Trileptal would also work for nerve pain.
Trileptal and Nerve Pain Studies
A few studies using Trileptal to treat nerve pain have been published. Some suggest that Trileptal is safe and effective for this use, while others have found Trileptal to be ineffective. Most of these studies were small or had problems with the design of the studies. Larger, better-designed studies are needed before the full benefits and risks of using Trileptal for nerve pain are known.
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