I found the below article on a MEDLINE search this morning. I was curious about carbamazepine therapy.
question: is a brief (say 2-week treatment) with such drugs effective? Or does the BFS return when the drug is stopped?
thanks
JGB
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Neurology, Vol 41, Issue 7 1021-1024, Copyright © 1991 by American Academy of Neurology
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ARTICLES
Cramp-fasciculation syndrome: a treatable hyperexcitable peripheral nerve disorder
AJ Tahmoush, RJ Alonso, GP Tahmoush and TD Heiman-Patterson
Department of Neurology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107.
We report nine patients with muscle aching, cramps, stiffness, exercise intolerance, and peripheral nerve hyperexcitability. Neurologic examination showed calf fasciculations in seven, quadriceps myokymia in two, and deltoid myokymia in one patient. Two patients had mild increase in serum creatine kinase. Muscle biopsy showed either no abnormality (three patients) or mild neurogenic changes (four patients). Fasciculations were the only abnormality on routine electrodiagnostic studies. Supramaximal stimulation of the median, ulnar, peroneal, and posterior tibial nerves at frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2, and 5 Hz produced showers of electrical potentials following the M response in at least one nerve. In three patients, the fasciculations and evoked electrical potentials were abolished by regional application of curare but not nerve block. Carbamazepine therapy caused moderate-to- marked reduction of symptoms and nerve hyperexcitability. We designate this hyperexcitable peripheral nerve disorder as the "cramp- fasciculation syndrome."