Migraine Medications

[pony-girl]

I’m a longtime sufferer of migraines. I’ve tried all the over the counter remedies, Advil, Excedrin (works for milder migraines or just headaches), and Tylenol, etc. After the last few migraines that were so bad they made me nauseated I decided to talk to my doctor. She prescribed Imitrex which didn’t help. Then we tried fioricet which also only took the edge off of it for a few hours before I needed to be back in a dark room and wait for it to pass. So now I think it’s time to go to a neurologist and talk about other options. My sister also suffers from migraines and is on topamax. That’s a pretty serious drug from what I understand. Do any COTHers have experience with that or other med that I should read up on before I see a neurologist?

Thanks in advance.

[jeta]

Maxalt melts…But it is quite expensive…

[bluemooncowgirl]

My daughter’s pediatrician recommended the following cocktail of meds at the very first sign of a migraine:

650 mg Tylenol
800 mg Advil
25-50 mg Benadryl
200 mg caffeine or a strong cup of coffee if you like it

It works great for her if she catches them in time. She also took propanolol as a preventive for a little over a year and it did help.

I usually take generic imitrex for mine but the cocktail also works.

[Calamber]

My husband had 4 day migraines for years. Finally, after having sinus surgery and some other health problems we took him to Johns Hopkins to find a doctor who related these headaches to allergies. There is an entire list of environmental and food allergies including but not limited to onions, bananas, red wine, cheap beer (no one should drink that anyway!), too much chocolate, some nuts and beans, any processed meats, most cheeses, oranges but not grapefruit, pineapple, too much coffee, corn syrup (as in all sodas and energy drinks), mold and mildew. Once he took himself off all of those, avoided the environmental, got regular exercise and sleep, the migraines ended and he has not had them since. There is a bit of other therapy that he has used with my encouragement in the last year and is somewhat overcoming a lifelong allergy to lactose. Please do see a specialist who understands this from a nutritional perspective also. That is a whopping load of drugs to take for anyone, nevermind a young person.

[Hobbs]

I have migraine with aura. Nothing over the counter will touch my migraines. One or two prescription Axert at onset works best for me. Avoiding food triggers such as aspertame, sucralose and chocolate helps but sometimes I can’t identify a trigger.

[vali]

Topamax works but sucks your brain (doctors I know call it dopamax). None of the triptans worked for me, but I’ve been having success with botox injections, which luckily my insurance covers.

[eclipse]

I take Topomax to stop my auras and Relpax is my lifesaver when a migraine hits! Mine are tied to barometric pressure changes and I also cannot drink red wine or very oaky wines. When I have a particularly bad one, like today, then a trip to the er for a shot of Demerol is the only relief… and I wasn’t the only one there as Calgary is notorious for headaches!

As someone else said I can’t take a high enough dose of topomax to stop the migraines as I get “stupid” but enough to take away the aura.

[pegasus44]

My daughter suffered from chronic daily migraines from 2001. Did neuro work ups, allergy testing, ENT doc, cocktails of crazy meds from headache clinic. Nada.

Acupuncture worked best! Can’t get her to go back anymore for treatment darn it.

Now she has migraines a few times a week, but manages them with Excedrin and Cambia (it’s pricey)

[eks]

Pony-girl,

I’m sorry to hear about your migraines. I also get migraines, but since I started on Topomax, they have been reduced immensely. I can only take the brand name or a generic made by a specific manufacturer. Once I was given some made by a different generic company, and they caused me to get migraines. I do feel a bit spacey sometimes, it is more like it takes a bit longer for a word to come to you…I experience some tingling in my feet, which subsided a lot once my body got used to the medicine.

I would definitely prefer the few times I’m a bit spacey to the days in my dark room where I couldn’t function at all. My headaches are hormone and weather related…also triggered by getting too hungry and bright lights. Good luck with trying to get some relief. I would def try to see a neuro.

[eclipse]

Just as a side note: I was taking Excedrin but found that they were starting to cause rebound headaches…be careful as this seems to be common with OTC meds

[Laurierace]

I don’t think you need to worry about researching medicines, let the doctor do their job. They will make reccomendations based upon your history and exam.

[Nezzy]

i tried Imitrex, Maxalt, Amerge, none of them helped. i actually felt worse on a few of them. Axert does help me, but only for about 4 hours. then i need another. but you cannot take more than 2 Axert in a 24 hr period. So sorry. i am in the same boat, i want to find a better medication, but i don’t think there are any that really help me except the Axert right now.

[ChocoMare]

Imitrex only works IF you can catch the headache as it starts.

I wake up with them…2 days of agony.

Finally whined to the right doctor. Gave me Naratriptan. Usually works with just 1 wee green pill. If not, I can take another 4 hours later and it’s always kicked the headache.

[VaqueroToro]

I took Topamax for awhile. It decreased the frequency but I definitely felt the “dopamax” part. It also suppressed my appetite to the point where I had to force myself to eat – lost lots of weight, hair, etc. And the lack of eating triggered even more migraines!

I second Calamber’s suggestion of having a chat with an allergist and possibly an endocrinologist to figure out if food or hormones are a trigger for you. I found out certain things WILL trigger a migraine in me faster than anything else. Avoiding those things has seriously reduced the number I get from two or more a week to once every three or four months.

[Gloria]

Long term sufferer here… I take Amitriplyn nightly as preventive measure, and combination of Maxalt and Tyleno (prescription) for the occasional flare up. You need to talk to your doctor for preventive medicine.

Also, believe it or not, Co-Q10 helps a ton - and I have low blood pressure and low cholesterol.

[WinsomeTK]

Zomig rapimelt when you can’t escape it, and propanolol daily helps reduce the headaches.

I stopped using birth control and my frequent migraines and daily headaches disappeared after a few months, now it’s only occasional bad headaches and rare migraines.

[pony-girl]

Thanks for all your replies. I should add that I have suffered from them when I was both on and off birth control and I’ve also tried acupuncture. I’m a strong believer in “letting the doctor do their job” but I also want to know what I could be getting into. Sometimes you don’t get the whole story from a doctor. Knowing that Topamax is also referred to as dopamax makes me want to discuss watching the dosage, etc. if s/he thinks it would be the right medication for me. My last doctor told me to take a class on meditating that was not covered by insurance and cost hundreds of dollars after I had tried the acupuncture which also cost hundreds. I’m not against alternative treatments but sometimes it takes a while to find a doctor that you can trust and that listens to you rather than selling a service that their office offers (seeing a different GP now thank god).

[LoriW]

Relpax is a lifesaver for me. I have other headaches as well as migraines but when my migraines hit, Relpax can literally get rid of them within an hour. The only problem is my insurance will only let me get something like 12 a month but that’s a whole other can of worms!

[eclipse]

[QUOTE=LoriW;7425589]
Relpax is a lifesaver for me. I have other headaches as well as migraines but when my migraines hit, Relpax can literally get rid of them within an hour. The only problem is my insurance will only let me get something like 12 a month but that’s a whole other can of worms![/QUOTE]

Yeah, my insurance would only allow one box per month (so 6 pills) because the average person only gets a few headaches! Luckily my work went to bat for me and the insurance upped it to 2 boxes so now every month without fail, I stock up on the 2 boxes! Never again will I be caught without my Relpax, they are my lifesaver…expensive even with insurance but oh so worth it! (I was actually crawling on my office floor today looking for a dropped one…yeah they are THAT expensive and THAT good :lol:)

[Paddys_Mom]

Since I was diagnosed with celiac and started avoiding gluten, migraines went from “two-to-four a month” to “very rare” for me.

Good luck!