Metabolism of carbamazepine: evidence of autoinduction in Chinese.

To investigate the autoinduction of carbamazepine (CBZ) metabolism in Chinese, eleven healthy male volunteers joined in this study. There were two phases of drug administration with a wash-out interval of one month, 400 mg CBZ was taken orally in single-dose phase, and 200 mg three times per day were given for seven days in multiple-dose phase. Plasma samples were obtained in series of time after the last dose of drug in each phase. CBZ concentrations were determined by a high pressure liquid chromatography method. A non-linear regression program was applied in a personal computer to estimate the pharmacokinetic parameters. The average CBZ half-lives in single- and multiple-dose phases were 50.1 +/- 12.1 (mean +/- SD) hours and 26.1 +/- 4.2 hours and the clearances were 16.4 +/- 3.3 ml/kg/h and 45.3 +/- 23.4 ml/kg/h respectively, both with significant differences (p less than 0.005). There is evidence to support the presumption of autoinduction in Chinese.