Carbamazepine is an anticonvulsant medication that has several uses, including trigeminal neuralgia, seizures, and bipolar disorder. Because it has so many uses, there's a good chance it will come up on the NCLEX. So we've created this visual mnemonic video to help you remember everything you need to know about carbamazepine for test day.
Thanks for keeping me company in the doctor's waiting room. You know how doctor's offices have magazines for the patients to read while they wait? Well, I've already lost interest in these car magazines on the table. It just reminds me of the car accident I was just in.
By the way, this car magazine will serve as your memory anchor to carbamazepine. Get it? Car magazine for carbamazepine?
It's the carbamazepine car magazine. Try saying that five times fast. On the cover of the car magazine is the featured car with really big shocks.
I bet that's one smooth ride since shocks are used to prevent shaking, right? Here at Pixerize, we use anti-shake shocks as our symbol for anticonvulsants, the drugs used to treat seizures, because both shocks and anticonvulsants are used to stop shaking, right? Carbamazepine is used to treat seizures, specifically tonic-clonic and partial seizures. But there are more uses for this anticonvulsant than just seizures, so let's move on.
After getting bored with the car magazines, I turned to my phone for entertainment. My favorite game is Trigem, the game where you try to match three gems in a row. Maybe you've played it before? The Trigem game here can remind you that carbamazepine is used to treat trigeminal neuralgia. Trigem for trigeminal neuralgia?
And in case you have a hard time remembering what trigeminal neuralgia is, just remember how much pain one side of my face is in from getting in that car accident. Trigeminal neuralgia is a condition characterized by brief episodes of severe pain affecting one side of the face. Carbamazepine helps to treat this condition by stopping the overactivation of the trigeminal nerve.
Just remember this Trigem game for trigeminal neuralgia. Got that? There's one more clinical use we should cover before moving on to side effects. How much longer can the doctor take? Good thing this waiting room is equipped with a television, I can only match gems for so long.
Take a closer look at the corner of the TV and you'll see that we're watching the theater channel, symbolized by that pair of drama masks. Let the happy and sad expressions on these drama masks symbolize bipolar disorder, since bipolar disorder is characterized by both periods of elevated mania as well as periods of depressed sadness. Carbamazepine is used as a mood-stabilizing treatment for bipolar disorder, especially for treating manic episodes.
Now that we know when we can expect carbamazepine to be prescribed, let's move on to the potential side effects of carbamazepine. I brought some granola bars with me, but I've been waiting so long that I've eaten them all, leaving me with just an empty granola box and some empty wrappers. By the way, the absence or low levels of granola bars can remind you of agranulocytosis.
You know, since agranulocytosis refers to a lack of granulocytes, represented by a lack of granola here. In simple words, this is basically a fall in the number of white blood cells, especially neutrophils. This fall in neutrophil counts can leave patients susceptible to deadly infections.
Therefore, the drug should be immediately stopped if neutrophil counts drop or if patients start developing infection symptoms like a sore throat. This is definitely the most feared side effect of this drug. In fact, it's a black box warning. So, remember it well for test day. In addition to a hit in the face, the car accident also left me covered in scrapes.
Now that I think about it, these scrapes all over my body kind of look like a rash, don't you think? These rash-looking scrapes can remind you that carbamazepine can cause a rash. If the patient develops a rash, they must immediately report it because this rash can progress into Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a life-threatening severe rash that results in skin death.
Like agranulocytosis, SJS is also a black box warning for carbamazepine that can threaten patient safety. So you bet that it's high yield for the NCLEX. I think it's finally my turn to see the doctor. Before I go, let's recap.
Carbamazepine is a drug most commonly used to treat trigeminal neuralgia, but is also prescribed for treating seizures and bipolar disorder. Severe side effects of carbamazepine include agranulocytosis, which presents as a rapid fall in neutrophil counts that puts the patient at risk for developing life-threatening infections. Carbamazepine can also cause a severe rash known as Stevens-Johnson syndrome, so any signs of a rash should be reported immediately.
Thanks for waiting with me. I'll leave you to your magazines. See you next time!