Trigeminal neuralgia medication-how to take them?

These are all questions that frequently come to the patients’ minds.

What is essential to understand is that TN medicines are not straight-forward pain-killers. They are primarily anti-convulsants or brain numbing medications. Once the first pill is consumed, it takes a few hours to reach the blood. The liver simultaneously metabolizes the drug, while some of it also reaches the brain to act upon. So in effect, the blood level reduces. Over a period of the next few hours, the blood level will become zero. Before this happens, we need to consume another pill to increase and maintain the blood level. If this does not happen, there is no effect on the pain as well.

In short, regular medication is essential to maintain a particular blood level of the drug, so that it calms the brain/ nerve. This calming effect means that they do not respond to pain signals, and therefore have a neuralgic-pain-reducing effect.

Another key point to be noted is that the dosages need to be very gradually increased (and decreased also).