Real‐world effectiveness and tolerability of carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine in 354 patients with trigeminal neuralgia

Background It is widely agreed that carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine are highly effective in the long‐term treatment of trigeminal neuralgia. However, the tolerability of these drugs across the different aetiologies of trigeminal neuralgia is still undetermined. Methods In this retrospective, real‐world study, we assessed the effectiveness and tolerability of carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine in a large cohort of patients with classical (254 patients), secondary (60 patients) and idiopathic (40 patients) trigeminal neuralgia. We analysed data using a propensity score analysis to account for selection bias; frequencies of side effects associated with carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine were calculated by adjusting data with the inverse probability of treatment weighting. Results The initial proportion of responders was 88.3% with carbamazepine, and 90.9% with oxcarbazepine. The number of refractory patients was significantly higher in idiopathic (15%) and secondary forms (27%) than in classical trigeminal neuralgia (6%; p