What classes of drugs do people tend to gain a tolerance to faster and/or to a greater degree?

By tolerance, what do you mean exactly? Many people confuse that term with addiction and habituation, thinking that they are synonymous. Just want to be clear without steering the subject in the wrong direction.

I mean requiring more to get the same benefit? I want to know what the body gets adapted for fastest versus drugs a person can use for decades without noticeable difference.

I know that tolerance occurs when the body becomes accustomed to a drug and requires ever-increasing amounts of it to achieve the same pharmacological effects. Tolerance is built most often with opioids, alcohol, cocaine, and barbiturates. The reason opioids leads to tolerance is because they mimic enkephalins produced in the brain; enkephalins are naturally occurring opiates in the brain. The hypothesis is that because these drugs mimic the action of enkephalins, your brain produces less of it over the period of using the drug; hence, more of the drug is required to produce the same effect, which is what leads to high tolerance and eventually dependency.

Habituation is characterized by the continued desire for a drug, even after physical dependence is gone. Marijuana and the hallucinogens, appear to produce habituation in humans.

Other than those particular examples how do other pharm drugs rate? Antidepressants, anticonvulsants, antispasmic, antibiotics, antipsychotics, nsaids, corticosteroids, etc?

For this, we would need to look at which drugs are cleared up by the liver. Usually, tolerance develops because metabolism of the drug speeds up (often because the liver enzymes involved in metabolizing drugs become more active) and because the number of sites (cell receptors) that the drug attaches to or the strength of the bond (affinity) between the receptor and drug decreases. This is why tolerance for alcohol and morphine is high, since they are both metabolized in the liver. That's one way to classify high tolerance risk drugs; other factors that depend on tolerance are age, sex, weight, underlying mental conditions, and drugs or substances they take at the same time. Thus, I could not find a comprehensive list of the types of drugs ordered in tolerance from highest to lowest.

In that case is tolerance to anticonvulsants relatively quick or slow? I started on one and it seemed to work great in first few days, but before week was over the effect seemed less. Not sure if it's in my head. My sister says to give it a month.

Anticonvulsants fall under the "antiepileptic category, antipsychotics, anti-manic agents, anxiolytics" category. Most work by suppressing impulses along nerve fibers in the brain, making seizures less frequent and less severe. It also prevents the transmission of certain nerve impulses, thereby reducing pain.

I found the perfect article to tackle your question. In the abstract:

"Two major types of tolerance are known. Pharmacokinetic (metabolic) tolerance, due to induction of [Antiepileptic Drugs]-metabolizing enzymes has been shown for most first-generation AEDs, and is easy to overcome by increasing dosage. Pharmacodynamic (functional) tolerance is due to "adaptation" of AED targets (e.g., by loss of receptor sensitivity) and has been shown experimentally for all AEDs that lose activity during prolonged treatment."

Sort of a personal question (and you're at liberty not to answer), but what's the reason for starting this drug?

So you're saying tolerance could take prolonged use to be an issue? I am taking it for trigeminal nerve pain since when I had covid19. My face started burning.

Prolonged use of any medication is an issue, certainly, especially if the medicine is known for some serious side-effects. That's besides the point, your issue is that after one week, you noticed a loss of efficacy. Maybe that's your cells adjusting to the medicine, which falls under the second type of tolerance mentioned above. Your infection of COVID19 lead to the trigeminal nerve pain? If I recall from past threads, didn't that originate from an accident (sorry, my memory could be hazy)

I have no way of knowing the cause of the trigeminal nerve pain. I had neck injury a year ago but only started getting face pain within a week of getting Covid-19. Who knows. The anticonvulsant is working better now. There are good days and bad days but I am now up to full low dose doctor prescribed. First week was building up with half as much a day. Now at double that level. Most days I'm not nauseous anymore which was a big concern.

If I were to guess, I would say that your COVID-19 infection isn't the cause for your pain, even though it's easy to make that association given the time proximity. I know that neck injuries can linger on for many years, sometimes those issue remains asymptomatic until suddenly they appear without notice, which is what I believe occurred here. I *personally* wouldn't touch those pills unless I've exhausted all other options. What I would have done first, if I were in your shoes, is to schedule weekly deep tissue massage's with a certified masseuse. That treatment seriously works wonders

Well I was getting PT for about 6 months last year. My neck felt better after first 2-3 month then bad again after. I think avoiding regular neck exercises does the most good as far as neck pain. Just stretching every other days seems to do enough. I don't know of a connection between the neck and brain nerves in the face, but than again I have yet to ask new questions to neurologist.

But physiotherapy ≠ massage; I've tried both and the latter is superior in my opinion.