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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Will The Use Of Carbamazepine Cause False Negative Pregnancy Test? Will It Affect Blood Test?

Can Carbamazepine / Tegretol cause false negative pregnancy tests ( hcg )? If so, how far into the pregnancy would this happen? Would this happen in blood tests too? There is a research study in the Lancet (1984) that suggests (from its title) that this is the case, but I haven t been able to read the whole thing. Is this information out of date?
Wed, 12 Dec 2012
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OBGYN,  's  Response
Hello
I appreciate your query.
Carbamazepine definitely interferes with the urinary pregnancy tests.
The article you mentioned in Lancet is from 1984, but I can suggest you other references also that mention the same phenomenon.
The references are :

1. Human chorionic gonadotropin in pregnancy diagnostics
Clinica Chimica Acta, doi:10.1016/j.cca.2011.05.025

2. Kaplan and Sadock ́s pocket handbook of psychiatric drug treatment. This book also contains details of the same.

Hence, you cannot rely on home pregnancy tests , if using carbamazepine.
Please consult your gynecologist and rely on blood B - HCG estimation or better still, an ultrasound for confirmation of diagnosis.
Hope this helped you.
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Will The Use Of Carbamazepine Cause False Negative Pregnancy Test? Will It Affect Blood Test?

Hello I appreciate your query. Carbamazepine definitely interferes with the urinary pregnancy tests. The article you mentioned in Lancet is from 1984, but I can suggest you other references also that mention the same phenomenon. The references are : 1. Human chorionic gonadotropin in pregnancy diagnostics Clinica Chimica Acta, doi:10.1016/j.cca.2011.05.025 2. Kaplan and Sadock ́s pocket handbook of psychiatric drug treatment. This book also contains details of the same. Hence, you cannot rely on home pregnancy tests , if using carbamazepine. Please consult your gynecologist and rely on blood B - HCG estimation or better still, an ultrasound for confirmation of diagnosis. Hope this helped you.