Trileptal (also known as oxcarbazepine) is an anticonvulsant drug that is approved for the treatment of people with a variety of different types of seizures. Trileptal is closely related chemically to Tegretol (also known as carbamazepine). Tegretol was one of the first anticonvulsant drugs tried in the treatment of bipolar disorder. Although the exact way in which Trileptal works to reduce seizures is not known, it looks like it blocks a type of nerve transmission involving a specialized pathway called sodium channels. Lithium works to reduce the mood swings seen in people with bipolar disorder by blocking similar pathways involving sodium channels.
Lithium treatment alone is sometimes not enough to control the mood swings seen in people with bipolar disorder. A number of different classes of drugs, including the anticonvulsants, are used in addition to or sometimes instead of lithium. Trileptal has been evaluated in several studies involving a small number of patients. About 60 percent of patients treated with lithium alone saw mild to moderate improvement in their symptoms when Trileptal was added. Side effects were a big enough problem that about 25 percent of the people had to stop taking the Trileptal. Drowsiness was the biggest problem. Dizziness, headache, blurred vision, rash, weight gain and tingling were also reported by the patients.
