I am 62 and have lived with migraines all my life. After my last 6 week series of daily migraines I had to stop taking Triptans because of rebound headaches. I added another preventative, Tizanidine, and have started doing acupuncture. My headaches are more managable now and I use Migranal to stop the worst ones.
Has anyone else gotten so they can't use triptans? If you have ,can you ever go back to using them? I find the after affects of taking the Migranal pretty bad, plus it takes 2 hours to relieve the pain. Triptans, when they work, work so quickly and you can get back to work right away. It would be convinient to be able to use triptans again.
Medication Overuse Headache (MOH) commonly called rebound headache may occur if we use certain OTC and/or prescription medications more than two to three days a week. Triptans may fall into this category (MOH causing medications) along with Midrin, Migranal, Fiorcet, acetaminophen and NSAIDS. You can find information this in our article: Medication Overuse Headache - When the Remedy Backfires.
Have you ever tried kepping a Migraine diary or been able to identify and food or non food triggers that may play a role in your Migraines? A Migraine diary is an easy way to see what is happening on a daily basis. What medications work, which ones don't, how fast they work and so on. You can download our free Migraine diary HERE.
Migraine triggers may include dehydration, skipping meals, irregular sleeping patterns, chocolate and even weather changes. We have information on Migraine triggers on this PAGE.
Let me know what you think...
I keep a headche diary and I'm very carefull with my diet. Sometimes when headaches just keep coming it's hard to not take something to get rid of the pain.
I have been having a good stretch here lately and I'm very thankful for every day I don't have a headache. I just wondered if you can go back to using Imitrex after a while.
Thank you for responding. This sight is very informative.
Tana
Well, how long a while are we talking about? See here's the thing, having more than three to four Migraines a month means we may need to be on a preventive medication. Or our current medication is not effective anymore, or needs a dosage change. Triptans are abortive medications used to stop the Migrainous process. Rescue medications are used when abortive medications don't work or can't be used. We have a wonderful articel on this topic: Preventive, Abortive, and Rescue Medications - What's the Difference?
Does this help any?
The information on rescue meds is what I needed. I didn't know about that. Thank you.