I have had migraines since I was a small child. I am now 42. I have seen numerous doctors and tried all kinds of therapies including: preventative drugs, abortive drugs, narcotics, OTC drugs, massage, yoga, botox, chiropractic, kicking and screaming and toughing it out. I have had various degrees of success with botox being the most helpful until my insurance stopped covering it. Stress is my main trigger. Now my Neurologist wants to try DHE IV therapy. It will require a 3 day hospital stay so I can be closely monitored. I have not heard of this before and have some reservations. Anyone have any experience??
- Find
- Manage
- Resources
12/ 9/08 1:11pm
Hi, I also have had the DHE treatment as an inpatient at the Jefferson Hospital. It did break the cycle that I was in at the time. I really liked the idea of being monitored on a medication that was strong, and I have never used. Everyone was great, and very helpful. Good luck to you and let us know how you do.
Hugs & prayers, Debbie
12/ 7/08 9:43am
I had DHE IV treatment for an intractible migraine(one that lasted nearly 5 months straight without a break) when I was 24(about 4 years ago). I was in the hospital for about 5 days, the length it took to make the migraine go away, the treatment sucked- caused chest pain immediately after the dosing, nausea,(they gave me meds for this before each dose of DHE, I think benedryl and something else) and I slept for nearly 5 days straight. In the end though it was ALL worth it! I went close to 4 years without a single migraine headache or atleast none bad enough to warrant medications. After the treatment the veins in my arms were rock hard and really sore and you have to take it easy moving around afterwards because it can cause some cramping and pain all over. But again, like i said, it was so worth it!
If you are at the end of your rope and you feel like this is your last option- do it, you won't regret it!
12/ 8/08 2:42am
Hi, I'm in the same boat as you and am going to have the DHE treatment (3 injections for 3 days) later this month. My neurologist says that I should go from 2-3 migraines a month to 2-3 a year! I will post again after the treatment and let you know how it goes.
Penny
12/10/08 9:49pm
My first migraine was at the age of 6. Thankfully they we only weeks apart, however; they were also dismissed as "hereditary". I can remember, as a child, telling my mother that I could hear her footsteps on the carpet, the pain was so severe. For some reason I was never taken to a neurologist and just learned to live with them. As time went on they of course became more severe. I have seen well over 15 physicians, including, neurologists, general practiioners, dentist, accupuncturists, chiropractors, orthopaedists, etc. While every patient is different, I too was put in the hospital for the three day DHE IV treatment.....on the third day I was released with yet ANOTHER MEDICATION and the migraine had not subsided.....Warninig: The new medication (Keppra) reaction that left me unconcious on my kitchen floor for 2 1/2 hours. I too am at my wits end. I have been unable to hold a job for 2 yrs. (3-4 migraines a week). And the most demeaning of all.......I can't seem to qualify for disability. Needless to say, the bills are piling up and the frustration is unbelievable. But, God has a plan for me....and for you....hey, did I mention that I discovered that I have a small artistic ability!! Have faith and don't give up.
1/ 7/10 2:57pm
Go to a phsycologist on how to cope with your migraines. A good written letter from your physcologist along with a good letter from your neurologist along with many forms and telling how debilating these migraines are...affects every aspect of your life, is what it took for me to finally get SS disability. Keep trying, but you have to have doctors that will back you 100%. Good luck!
8/ 2/11 9:23am
Recently I went to the ER for migriaine that has lasted almost continually for a month. I was just treated outpatient, and it was the first time they had used DHE. They used it in conjunction with and imitrex injection, meds for nausea and when I left the migraine was gone. IT Stayed away for 4 days. But now is back again. I have been getting hemoplegic migraines for about 6 years. So bad that sometimes I can hardly talk and have difficulty with vision. BUT I DID GET SS disability . It took 3 years of constant appeals and getting a GOOD lawyer who specializes in SS disability..... but I got it as I also cannot work....2-3 migraines a week. Need to find out if DHE is something I can give myself....hate emergency rooms, more often than not get a doctor who knows little to nothing about migraines. But now my neurologist is talking about giving me botox injections??? Anyone had any luck with this treatment?
2/26/09 10:56am
I was hospitalized Jan 6, '09 for status migraine and given the DHE IV, unfortunately I still left the hospital with a migraine. Insurance quit paying after the 3rd day so I had to be released. I have not been headache free since - actually I have not been headache free in 6 months. After a follow-up visit to the Neurologist on 1/25/09, he has given me Prednisone to see if that would break the cycle. If that is unsuccessful, I am to be admitted on 1/27 for another round of DHE to try again. Very frustrating, but after reading all the positive responses at how it has helped others, I am hoping for a great outcome.
6/30/09 6:05pm
I truly empathize with your situaion. My neuro doc is advising me to go the same route coupled w/a spinal tap yet i'm a bit hesitant based on multiple factors: one, his honesty & all i've read re: rebound effect, my body appears to be extremely sensitive, and in light of my pain specialist stronly advising me/referring me to a very competent & comprehensive based rheumotologist - this is why i'm writing to you & to anyone who might be reading this. My rheumo doc, in the midst of all my other dxes, also brought up that i appeared to present w/TMJ SYNDROME. I've done some research & i can say that TMJ is overlooked by neurologists from the literature I referred to and personally experienced (I've seen quite a few over the years). If you do a search on TMJ you will be surprised to see how many symptoms are listed...such as migraines, head and neck pain, etc. I was advised to consult w/a bioesthetic dentist and you know, this is the 3rd x someone has said this to me (the 1st x a western doc has)...i'm taking her advice and albeit it being private pay it is plausible. Another thing for you, have you worked w/a DO? My PA just recommended that today. Addititionally, consider into a natural path doc all together? Western med, as i've learned, can really overlook some underlying feature in our mysterious bodies that can be essentially the key to unlocking the pain. I'm not there yet, yet I'm going to believe in it and pro-actively work toward it. Blessings to you and to you all!
6/23/09 8:54pm
I was hospitalized in Oct '08 for DHE treatment. I had been having 3 migraines a day and it increased to one long one from august to october. I had the treatment for 6 days my migraine got worse at first then it got so much better and by saturday it was gone and i was released. the pain you endure during that week is well worth it. I hardly eer have migraines anymore, i am still on medication to control my auras, but it went from 13 pills a day to 4 for my auras. i hope all went well:)
<!--Session data-->
8/13/09 12:10am
my neuro wants to try this because my migraines have been non-stop daily, 2 1/2 years. i have had to take a leave from work due to the pain. i have tried chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, medications, botox, physical therapy, etc. unrelenting. want to try this treatment even if it alleves it just for a while. i am watching my life pass before my eyes without my participation in it and i cant stand it anymore. i am hoping i have good results, even if it just temporary. thanks for sharing info
10/31/10 3:15pm
where did you do your treatment?
11/ 4/09 4:08pm
I had treatment 7/2/09 and was in for 3 day and had treatments every 8 hours. The treatment hurts a little only because the DHE is strong. I think I went throught 3 vains. I think if you have tried everything, it won't hurt to try. I did walk out of the hospital felling better. I had had the same migraine for months so I was so happy to be feeling so much better! Last night was my the first sign of a migraine. So I went 3 months which I must say is much better then evry month.
3/ 3/10 9:18am
hello,
i was just released Monday from the hospital from 11 DHE treatments. i have suffered from migraines for a year now which were triggered by a car accident in 2008. the DHE gave me relief while i was there in the hospital but now that i am back home i have a level seven headache again. i do not think i would do this procedure again just because i went through a lot of trauma with it. i had many iv problems because the meds were so hard on my veins that they just ached, i was nauseated, numb, achy all over, and just miserable. i have yet to figure out my migraines but i wish you the best of luck.
6/12/10 12:55pm
I am currently in the Nationl Hospital in London receive this treatment. I am on IV number 5, as others have said, it is quite painful as it goes through your system, but if it works for me it will be worth the extra pain now. I have constant background pain at level 4, daily seizures and spikes of pain daily that often reach 10. I already feeling a little bit better between treatments, so please do take the opportunity of having this done, as I thought to myself, I would only regret it if I had never given it a go. I'll update you when I have finished my treatments. Prayers for yours too...
6/15/10 7:13pm
Update...
Have just left hospital after 12 doses of DHE.. My pain has been reduced by more than 50%. Which to me is just brilliant. Having had daily spikes that would hit more than 10 if there were a score table for that and seizures that would make the migrane pain worse.
I feel pretty fantastic, just having the constant pain reduced to a level that is overall tolerable is a Godsend. I recommend this treatment to you if you are being asked to consider it. When the treatment is being given... It makes you feel achey, and like you have the flu whilst the it is going in to your system. But this passes when the dose has gone in to your system. I noticed benefits after dose 4 of the 12 I had and am praying that I get a good period of time before the levels return to my previous pain.
10/27/10 2:32pm
My wife had this treatment March of 2009 for 5 days and it was not successful. There was some question about the fact the attending neuro did not remove her from her other meds at the time (thinkning that this is also supposed to work as a detox off of nacotic/other pain meds). So when she left she did not get much relief. She was on dilaudid which she had to detox on her own a month later which was a bad 3 day experience of sweating, headaches, naseua etc...
So since then she has still had constant headache pain. She had a nerve removal this march and an occiptial decompression which did not really work
her best months were this last May and June where she was on 40mg's of oxycodone a day, but she was working out, exercising, sitting on the beach (those with light sensitivity know how nice that can be).
But know the doc wants her off oxy and she is in constant pain again. They are not really calling them migraines, but i think she just has a high pain threshold. They just did a nerve block yesterday and want to use Botox.
We are looking at the jefferson institute for DHE treatment for 10 days or surgery to remove the other nerves. My wife got in contact with someone who had the surgery 4 times to no avail, so it is a hard choice since the effects of the first DHE were not successful and had pain afterwards.
Either way, knowing what she is going through, the meds she has been on at home with no observation, you could do worse than a 5/10 day inpatient treatment under doctors supervision. we just seemed to have the worst neuro in the world the first time. Hopefully once we discuss with Jefferson what happened last time, they can alleviate our concerns.
11/17/10 9:52am
Hello all my daughter Kiley is 13 and has been suffering from migraines since she was about 4, she has been to neurologist, has been put on nexproxin it did not work and was hospitalized a few years back for 5 days because she had a migraine for 5 days, she was maybe 10 or 11 at the time, it did work and she was only having migraines here and there until she was in a school bus accident last year which triggered migraines almost everyday and now today she is going to the ER because she is on day 5 of a migraine to which she has missed her first day of school in 3 years, I feel so bad for her, she turns MILK WHITE, can't hold her head up and just sleeps, the DHE treatment did work for her but after day three she became a cardiac patient because her blood pressure went sky high and her heart rate was in the 40's they also had to give her reglan before each treatment because it made her vomit! I wish I could take her pain away it breaks my heart to see her that way, and we watch everything that she puts in her mouth, because we lived through a food diary as well!
3/22/11 11:23pm
my daughter just tried it this past week for 3 days from an iv. it did no good and made no difference what so ever. but many you will have better luck. it always worth a try.
7/12/11 9:07am
This is not a treatment I would personally advise for anyone. I have had a migraine since Nov 09. I got relief for about a week and a half with outpatient headache cocktail which included smaller doses of hde but the risk factors were greater than the relief I got so it was decided by my physician and myself not to continue this process. I have been to several neurologist and pain specialist. I think every test possible has been done. The only explanation I have gotten is that my migraine trigger is turned on and will not turn off. I have not been able to work since March 2010. I was passing out and loosing chunks of time. I have no quality of life. I have stopped driving because I never know when a headache will hit and when they do they go from 2 to 10 in a matter of seconds along with the nausea and vomitting. I have 2 grandchildren that I can now do very little with and am afraid to be left alone with because I don't feel it is safe for them to be in my care. I passed out 2x at work. After my husband came home and found me passed out the third time, he no longer leaves me at home alone. I am 56 years old and have to have a babysitter. Very degrading. I checked into the hospital at 7 a.m. on a Tuesday to have the DHE IV treatment. I was to be there 3 to 5 days. By 7 that evening I was in the ICU at that same hospital. A reaction to the medication. I spent 3 days in ICU came home with a worse headache than I went in with but the treating physician would no longer do anything for my headache for fear of a "relapse". My heart rate was below 40 repeatedly. For a period of about 20 minutes, I could see and hear everything they were saying and doing to me but they could not hear me talking to them. I could not move or speak. Before I started trying all the "treatments" for my migraines I had very good veins. Now it is difficult for them to even get a good stick to do my regular blood work. My insurance has run out. I no longer have coverage so I am pretty much stuck living this shell of a life. Worse my husband is forced to live it with me. He has been a rock. Without him, I would not have made it this far. He drives me everywhere I want to go. He takes care of me when the headaches take over when is pretty often. I would love to have an answer. But as for pumping something else into my veins. I don't think so.
7/12/11 9:38am
hurting,
I'm sorry you need to be here but glad you found us. Neurologists aren't necessarily Migraine specialists. Have you seen an actual Migraine specialist? I see from your profile that you live in West Virginia. Small world - so do I. For a long time, we had no Migraine specialists in the state. Now we have two - Dr. David Watson at WVU in Morgantown and Dr. Carol Foster at Charleston Area Medical Center.
I thought I was doomend with my Migraines. At that time, there were no specialists in West Virginia, so my husband and I went to Philadelphia so I could see a specialist there. It was amazing how much difference I made. The doctor there helped me get my life back. There are so many more treatments than I had ever dreamed existed.
Don't give up!
Teri
7/12/11 1:01pm
I have used DHE before, once in a hospital to get rid of a daily headache which it did not break and after 8 days of 24/7 IV tx, the docs used cortisone to get me off the DHE, and later I was using daily IM injections at home for about 2 - 3 months. All I remember is that besides having large bruises up and down my legs at the injection sites, I don't think it did much to stop the migraines besides making me very good at giving myself injections. It must have helped some, but we eventually abandoned it because it was too expensive for the amount of relief it gave. If you do use it at home for a rescue med be sure to get a bottle of saline solution and after you put the saline solution in the syringe, put an equal amount of saline in the syringe before injecting yourself, or if the doc is doing it, insist that he does that if it is not an IV injection (if you are in the hospital it probably will be). The stuff really burns going in, and that is what will give you the bruises, and my doc just forgot to tell me this, and it was a lot easier taking shots after I leaned this, so keep this in mind. If it works for you, and it may, you will have to do it at home, and the saline will make your live bearable. It is an ergotamine, and since the triptans started use, the ergotamines have gone "out of style" as a rx. I hope it works for you.
8/14/11 11:34pm
Well I do hope you have some relief with your headache. My 13 yo daughter woke up one morning with a headache and 7 months and multiple meds and doctors she still has her status migrainous. Last week she was in the hospital for 4 days to try DHE IV but it did not work and she had all the side effects during the treatments. She had nausea and vomiting, increase in her pain, flushing, increase b/p, HR in the 40's but the most distressing was went she had arrhythmias. I would like to know what to do to help her. I feel helpless.
1/18/12 11:53am
Hello. Yes. I had treatment. And it worked great for me. My doctor plans on putting me on home DHE injection treatments. I have severe migraines with arauras. I take 200mg of topax now and Lots of other stuff for pain So these DHE treatments work
Surviving from Alabama
Important:
We hope you find this general health information helpful. Please note however, that this Q&A is meant to support not replace the professional medical advice you receive from your doctor. No information in the Answers above is intended to diagnose or treat any condition. The views expressed in the Answers above belong to the individuals who posted them and do not necessarily reflect the views of Remedy Health Media. Remedy Health Media does not review or edit content posted by our community members, but reserves the right to remove any material it deems inappropriate.
By DenasTrouble— Last Modified: 03/27/12, First Published: 12/06/08
Featuring Content From:
By using this service, you accept our Terms of Use. Please read them. The consumer health information on is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions. You should promptly seek professional medical care if you have any concern about your health, and you should always consult your physician before starting a fitness regimen. Copyright © 2012 Remedy Health Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
i completed DHE IV treatment last monday 3/19/2012 for migraines...suffering the last 8 years with a migraine every day. i have been a sufferer for 35 years. i am not at the point of "it was all worth it"...i still suffer from the side effects of DHE and am still experiencing migraine every other day needing my abortive to help me get through it. i am pretty certain it is safe to say i would not do this again, unless by some miracle this all disappears in the next week.