The auto-induction of carbamazepine during long-term therapy.

Healthy male volunteers during regular therapy of carbamazepine had a statistically significant decrease in their plasma drug levels during a period of 28 days. The same phenomenon was also registered in epileptic patients in the course of their long-term monotherapy with carbamazepine. Neither in volunteers nor in epileptics did any statistically significant change in the plasma levels of carbamazepine-10,11-epoxide occur. Wide fluctuations between the fasting and peak plasma level of carbamazepine were found in epileptics. Neither the fasting nor peak plasma levels of the drug correlated in a statistically significant degree with the daily dose of carbamazepine.