Solid dispersions containing carbamazepine (CBZ) associated with beta-cyclodextrin (betaCD) and/or hydroxypropyl methylcellulose were prepared by two different methods, spray-drying or physical mixture, and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), infrared (IR) spectroscopy, and x-ray powder diffraction analysis (XRPD) studies. Scanning electron microscopy pictures showed that spray-drying produced a mixture of hollow, spherical, and partially shrunken microparticles of homogeneous materials, whereas the physical mixtures yielded heterogeneous systems in which all individual components could be identified. Thermal and IR analyses suggest the existence of a strong interaction between CBZ and excipients in spray-dried solid dispersions, but no CBZ polymorphic transition was detected by either IR spectroscopy or XRPD analysis after the spray-drying process.