I have a lot of health issues. I have been on tegretol and Depakote for epilepsy since 1983. no side effect that I have been aware of. 4 years ago I had pheocromacitoma and had an adrenal gland removed. I all the testing they discovered I had a growth on my thyroid and removed it within a month of that surgery. after these two surgeries I started having headaches and I get this feeling like electricity is running through my body, especially in my legs. my sodium is getting low. I was also on statins for high cholestoral. after many trips to the ER to get me settled down my general doctor and the hospital doctor thought it was the statins so they took me off it. this was last July. I seem to go ok the rest of year, but avoided any outside activity to avoid sweating. I had started taking salt tablets to try to bring up my sodium throughout this. after feeling better, thinking the statins was the cause it hit me again last month after doing work outside. now, I am going through this again. I have literally eaten spoonfuls of salt to get my level back up which has stopped my nerves going crazy. my endocrinologist thinks it s the tegretol I have been on since 1982. I think it is something with these surgeries of the thyroid and or adrenal gland removal. if it was the tegretol why hasn t it caused an issue before the surgeries? after the two surgeries I can show him the levels of the sodium started dropping.