Monday, February 13, 2012
Monday, September 22, 2008 zoe asks

Q: sodium valproate for migraines

Hi

 

My husband has recently been seen by a neurologist and she thinks he is suffering from migraines.  He has a headache from the time he get up to the time he goes to bed!.  He also suffers from numbness in the top left of his head, and left side of his face (right side just starting to go numb too), also in his left arm and the tops of his legs.

 

She has ordered a MRI (but about a 3 months wait) and has taken bloods, in the mean time we are to keep a diary and she has given him sodium valporate.  We have another appointment but not for 6 months.

 

Just wondering if anybody else has been prescribed these tablets, and whether they help in the long run.

 

many thanks in advance

 

zoe Smile

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Answers (1)
9/23/08 12:31am

Hi Zoe. Sorry to hear of this. I'm glad your husband has a neurologist watching over him, as his symptoms sound severe and certainly bear watching carefully. I am hoping this all-day headache is not constant for him, every day of the month. If so, then it is beyond migraine. When I was having migraines 5-7 times a month, I took sodium valproate for a couple of years. Initially they really helped (reduced migraine frequency and severity) but after about two years, the migraines became more and more frequent and my doctor took me off the sodium valproate and we tried something else. I also had a very unpleasant side-effect of the sodium valproate: I was HUNGRY, and I couldn't stop eating, and I gained considerable weight. I lost the weight after I got off the drug, and it did help for a while, so I guess it was worth it.

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