Friday, October 17, 2008 Andee asks

Q: Can a 13 year old have a migraine for 2 months?

Hi,

My name is Andee, and I have a serious problem regarding my nephew. It was about 2 months ago he developed a rash and began vomitting. Then he developed a severe headache. My sister took him to his pediatrician, and they referred him to a neurologists. The neurologists diagnosed him as having migraines and prescribed Depakote. The headache did not go away, so they returned to the neurologists. The neurologists increased the dose of Depakote. The headache still did not get any better, so they returned again to the neurologists. This time a CT was done, which was negative. He was then put on Topamax. The headache still did not improve, so I advised my sister to request them test him for Mono and Menigitis. The test came back negative, so they returned again to the neurologists. This time he prescribed Amitriptyline, when my sister told me this a red flag went up. So, we researched it. This drug is an antidepressant that has not been indicated for the treatment of migraines. This drug is also not supposed to be used in pediatric patients. I told my sister to not give him that medication, and so here I am tonight begging for someone's help. He is a normal happy 13 year old boy, who is very sports oriented and good student. He has recently had to stop playing football, because we don't know what is wrong with him. These are some of the symptoms he has for the last 2 months nausea, vomitting, rash, tingling in his hands, fatigue, severe dizziness, and a headache that he goes to bed with and wakes up with. There has been no relief with any of the medications. I am not sure if this pertinent, but my sister has Hydracephalous that was adult onset. Please if anyone can help us, we just don't know what else to do.

Answers (3)

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Teri Robert

10/30/08 3:41pm

Dear Andee,

One thing that can be difficult about medictions for Migraine prevention is that nearly all of them are prescribed off-label. If you look them up, you will not find them said to be indicated for Migraine prevention. There are over 100 medications in use for Migraine and headache prevention, but only four of them have actually been approved by the FDA for an indication of Migraine or headache prevention. Amitriptyline has been prescribed for Migraine prevention for many years, and is quite effective for some people. It has been approved for depression in children aged nine and older.

We can't diagnose, but we can share information that you can discuss with your nephew's doctor. One thing that comes to mind given that his started with a rash and on a specific day is the possibility of new daily persistent headache. You can find more information in New Daily Persistent Headache - The Basics.

Is he taking something daily or near daily to relieve the headache? If so, a big part of his problem may well be medication overuse headache (MOH), aka rebound. See Medication Overuse Headache - When the Remedy Backfires for more information on this.

Obviously your nephew needs help. Keep in mind that neurologists are not necessarily headache and Migraine specialists. I suggest that your family find a good specialist for him. This can make a world of difference. Take a look at the article Migraine and Headache Specialists - What's So Special? If you need help finding a Migraine specialist, check our listing of Patient Recommended Migraine and Headache Specialists.

I know you and your family are going through a rough time. If any of you would like some additional support, come join our discussion forum. You'll need to register again once there because it's a separate membership database, but you can use the same member name, email address, and password that you used here. You can find our forum at http://forums.healthcentral.com/discussion/migraine/forums.

Good luck,

Teri

suzette

10/18/08 8:29pm

hi, my name is suzette and when I was pregnant with my daughter i was put on the medicine you are not wanting to use for migraines, it helped me with mine, and it was gone in two days, my family, especially the women have these, they are horrible and I am so sorry for your nephew. My daughter who i was pregnant with now takes the imetrex sprays( forgive me if i dont spell that right) they work for her, she also takes pills. I am texting her to get the name of it, the migraines are so hard on the body, it is energy draining pain, I am praying someone finds a answer soon for Andee. Please if you never experienced one keep it quiet as possible, all light and noise is so painful only a suffer like myself can explain and understand, my daughter also figured out a candy and soda helps. PROPOPANAL. also mispelled but that is the name of the pills, good luck and you are in my prayers. also ask about cluster migraines, they are 24/7.

AndrewsMom

10/21/08 6:15pm

Hi Andee

Sadly, I know from firsthand experience with my own son that a 13 year old can have a migraine for many, many months. Two months after my son turned 13 he got a never ending migraine. He had been taking periactin (antihistamine) for migraine prevention for approx 3 years prior to this. Our doctor did also put him on amitriptyline. It is used very frequently for migraine prevention. I know that it is scary to use this type of medication on a teenager, but it did help my son.

I have to tell you that we went through several months of a long lasting migraine that turned into a chronic daily headache. We finally got rid of it. My son is 15 now. He has been doing great for about 5 months.

I'm convinced that for my son this all started with puberty. Of course, he is still going through puberty, but I believe the biggest growth spurt and body changes have already happened for him.

Initially I went to my pediatrician and had an MRI and many pain medications with no relief. I then went to a neurologist who referred me to Chicago (over 10 hours away). We went to Chicago where my son was admitted to the hospital for IV treatment. Unfortunately that didn't solve the problem. He was again admitted to the hospital approx 3 months later. He received IV treatments from another neurologist. He was then bumped up to 100mg of amitriptyline. That did not solve the problem but it did reduce the severity of his migraines.

He was also prescribed petadolex (natural supplement). He currently takes periactin, amitryptiline, petadolex, migrelief (supplement), fish oil and a daily vitamin.

My best advice is to find a pediatric migraine specialist. I know the drugs are scary, but I don't think he's likely to improve without them. If you find a doctor you trust you can feel better about it.

I have tried everything with my son including massage, accupuncture, biofeedback, physical therapy and many medications. I had my son tested for mono and lyme disease.

My son does not have a rash. He did and still does have nausea, some vomiting at times, and dizziness with his migraines.

I'm not certain if a preventative drug can help when your nephew is in this cycle of migraine. Nothing really helped my son until we got rid of that continuous migraine/headache cycle.

Best of luck to your nephew. I hope he will find some relief soon. This website and the forum on this website are excellent resources. They have a list of highly recommended specialists.

Jean Ann

Q: Can a 13 year old have a migraine for 2 months?

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