Lithium and other mood stabilisers

Explains how lithium and other mood stabilising drugs work, how they might help you, whether to take them if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, and what alternative treatments are available.

View this information as a PDF (new window)

carbamazepine

Carbamazepine is an anticonvulsant drug used as a mood stabiliser. It is also known by the trade names Carbagen and Tegretol.

You can find detailed information about this drug in the official Patient Information Leaflet (PIL). This includes information on what the medication is for, how to take it, possible side effects and safety information.

This leaflet should come with your medication, usually inside the box. Or you can download a PDF version of the PIL for your medication:

100mg, 200mg & 400mg tablets
100mg/5ml oral suspension (liquid)

Some drugs come in different forms, such as tablets or liquid. There may be a separate PIL for each form of the drug, as well as for different doses. You should look at the PIL for the form and dose you have been prescribed.

You can also search these websites for your specific drug to find further information and PILs:

If you have any questions about your medication you can:

talk to your doctor, or any healthcare professional who prescribes your medication
speak to someone at a pharmacy
contact NHS 111 if you live in England
contact NHS 111 or NHS Direct (0845 46 47) if you live in Wales.

If you experience any side effects from your drug, you can report them to the MHRA via their Yellow Card scheme. This scheme allows the MHRA to collect information about which drugs cause which side effects and how common they are. This lets drug manufacturers give more accurate information about their medication.

More information about lithium and other mood stabilisers

Our pages on lithium and other mood stabilisers have more information about this type of medication. This includes how they work and how they might help you. It also covers how they might affect you if you are pregnant, their withdrawal effects and alternative treatment options.

These pages may also help:

About psychiatric medication. See our pages on psychiatric medication for information on what you should know before taking any psychiatric drug, receiving the right medication for you, and your right to refuse medication.
About side effects. See our page on coping with side effects for information on what to do if you experience a side effect.
About coming off medication. See our pages on coming off psychiatric drugs for information on making your decision to come off medication, planning withdrawal and withdrawal symptoms.
About accessing treatment. See our pages on seeking help for a mental health problem for more information on getting treatment for your mental health.

Was this page useful? Yes No Tell us more Tell us more

Tell us more

Why did you visit this page? *

For my own mental health
For someone else’s mental health
Academic/educational/professional reason
Other reason

What do you want to tell us about?

Praise – things we do well
Criticism – things we could do better
Errors, mistakes or broken links

Please give us your feedback:

Note:

Please don’t include personal details like your name or email address. If you do, data protection law means we’ll have to delete your comments.
Unfortunately we can’t reply to this. If you want a response from us, see our Contact us page.
If you are in crisis right now and want to talk to someone urgently then you could call Samaritans on 116 123 (freephone). Our pages on crisis services have more options.

There has been a problem submitting your feedback.

Thankyou for providing your feedback.

This information was published in June 2020. We will revise it in 2023.

References and bibliography available on request.

If you want to reproduce this content, see our permissions and licensing page.

Campaigning

Volunteering

Membership