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I have recently experienced a reaction to Tegretol Retard
produced in the EU. My pharmacist now ensures that I receive UK produced
Tegratol. This might be another area for concern for other patients and
their clinicicians where continuity is required?
It is not only change of brand of drug that can be a hazard to
epileptics. I was surprised to find a few yers ago that the specification
for accuracy of dose in epileptic drugs is such that when high doses are
required to control the fits the varition from batch to batch is really
unacceptably large and this can give rise to failure of control. Thus
Novartis wrote to me in June 2000 that "the tablets have to contain
between 95% and 105% of,the stated dose". This means that with a nominal
dose of carbamazepine of 2000 mg per day, the actual dose could swing from
2100 to 1900, a difference of 200 mg per day which could result in
significant loss of control. It seems that some tightening up of the
allowed variability would be in order for anti-convulsive drugs.
Patient reaction
I have recently experienced a reaction to Tegretol Retard
produced in the EU. My pharmacist now ensures that I receive UK produced
Tegratol. This might be another area for concern for other patients and
their clinicicians where continuity is required?
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests