John Claude Krusz, Ph.D., M.D.
ANODYNE Headache and PainCare
5446 Glen Lakes Drive
Dallas, TX 75231
214-750-6664
http://anodynepaincare.org/Clinic_Staff.htm
Transcript: Laboratory bloodwork – checking sodium levels
While most of today’s modern medications don’t require laboratory checking, some of the older medicines like Tegretol do. You have to check liver enzymes. You want to check sodium and there are some interactions with antibiotics. So they’re a little more cumbersome. Even one of the newer, the sort of derivative of Tegretol, called Trileptal/Oxcarbazepine, has a little bit of difficulty in the sense that you really have to check sodium levels.
We’ve had several cases of primarily in folks that in their fifth, sixth, or seventh decade who drop their sodiums and that can cause confusion and dizziness and really should be monitored by the physician. But other than that today’s neuronal stabilizing agents don’t require labs. They are weight neutral. They don’t cause drowsiness by and large although Tegretol and Trileptal can be sleep promoting which is quite good.