Abstracts of articles relevant to this topic are available through PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine:

Mattson, RH, Cramer, JA, et al. Comparison of carbamazepine, phenobarbital, phenytoin and primidone in partial and secondarily generalized tonic clonic seizures. N Engl J Med 313:145-151, 1985. PMID: 3925335.

Carbamazepine was more effective than primidone or phenobarbital in controlling partial seizures. Overall, carbamazepine and phenytoin are the first choices for a single medication to treat adults with newly diagnosed partial seizures, generalized tonic-clonic seizures, or both.

Mattson, RH, Cramer, JA, et al. A comparison of valproate with carbamazepine for the treatment of partial seizures and secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures in adults. N Engl J Med, 327:765-771, 1992. PMID: 1298221.

Carbamazepine and valproate are equally effective for treating generalized tonic-clonic seizures in adults. Although other studies show that valproate is effective for newly diagnosed partial seizures, in this study carbamazepine provided better control of complex partial seizures. The side effects of these two medications are different.

Snead OC III, Hosey LC. Exacerbation of seizures in children by carbamazepine. N Engl J Med 1985;313:916-21.

A call for caution when using carbamazepine in children with mixed seizure disorders.