Can somebody please explain to me what do you mean by rebound headaches?
Are that headaches that appear soon after treating one? How do you know they are rebound headaches and not just cluster headaches that would appear nonetheless?

I am obviously at the peak of my cycle and my headaches are all over the place. I woke up at 2 pm with a big one I treated with Imitrex and when waking up at 8 am (6 hours later) I had another big one. Would that classify as a rebound?

Please someone explain.

Thanks.
Jure

First, "Rebound headaches. "Rebound Headaches--A Review", Au. John S. Warner, M.D., in HEADACHE QUARTERLY, 10:3(1999). (There is some confusion on the board about the meaning of "rebound". There appears to be an emerging consensus in the medical literature to define "rebound" as a headache which is caused by the overuse of any medication used to abort a headache or relieve pain. "Recurrence" [of a headache] is being used to refer to the redevelopment of an attack when its "normal" duration is longer than the useful life of the medication which has been taken. That is, the medication effectiveness is reducing before the headache has come to an end; the pain redevelops.)"

There is a general rule of thumb re. use of OTC pain meds that dosing 3-5x a week can trigger rebound headaches.

You cannot distinguish a CH from a rebound or a rebound triggered by an pain med. They are the same experience. This is why docs who suspect a rebound situation can only take the person off the suspect med and see if the frequency of attacks reduces.

Waking up 6-hrs after dosing with Imitrex suggests that the relatively short, effective, life of Imitrex had passed and the CH redeveloped or a new CH had developed.

I think a good many folks here believe that Imitrex can induce rebounds but the medical literature is not clear on the question. It's quite clear that there is no agreement on how many doses and at what intervals, can trigger a rebound.

In any case, I would not make any judgment on your situation based on one experience. You'll need to keep some records and see if some pattern becomes clear. If yes, then you and the doc have several options re. using other abortives after taking a break from anyone of them in this class of meds.

Bob, that is the perfect description of rebound headaches.  BTDT and it is hell.

Beth

Keep a log of headaches and everything you take for them and when you take it.  I do a 4 column thing...1-time and description of HA, 2-what and how much I took to abort it, 3-the consequences, and 4-the changes in the long term med I am taking (like Verapamil, etc).  It will paint you a nice picture of what is going on.  However, as Bob said, it can be a difficult puzzle to solve, but a log gives you the best chance, I think.

Good luck!
Joni

I have noticed that if I use O2 to abort rather than imitrex my cycle will be much shorter.  The first time I am in a place where I have no access to my tank and I have to use imitrex(inj. or nasal) the cycle seems to start back up again until the next time I abort using O2.  So in my case any doctor that believes the CH that comes on 6 hours after my last trex injection is just part of my normal cycle is flat out wrong. 

       Sheepdog

Sheepdog, when I use to use triptan pills, the same thing happened to me.  However, my sister's cycles are shorter and much milder with the triptans (injections).  Good thing for chocolate and vanilla ice cream, huh?

Thank you for all your answers!  :)

This was perfect,
For me sometimes, I get an attack at the peak of my cycle and it last so long, It collides with another one.  As one tappers off another one starts. Very frustrating.

Thanks for the posts and support :)
Jrcox

My personal gauge for for classifying a headache as a likely rebound is if it happens within 3 hours or so after an abort.

That doesn't necessarily go for the beddy bye wake up hits though - that's just a circus where the rule book gets thrown out, and I don't know that I can so readily classify those every few hours hits as being rebounds.

Bob,

Thank you for posting your comments. I see the term "rebound" constantly being misused here, but lacked the energy to keep correcting people.

When dealing with our condition, terminology is in fact important.

Marc

I know it's been a couple of weeks since anyone posted on this thread, but thought it was worth sharing our latest cheap win against Heads.

My husband is a sufferer and uses Imigran injections (sumatriptan) to abort attacks.  He has always suffered from bounce backs, and had to "ride out" headaches once he had reached his daily limit, (or more specifically when he has gone so far over the limit that even he thinks he should stop injecting, max 7 in 24 hours)  But this all changed last year!

We have found that taking cyproheptadine hydrochloride totally stopped his bounce back headaches.

The doctor still can't believe it worked as it usually a drug used as an antihistamine against dog allergies etc, but it did!  They do make him slightly sleepier than normal, but nothing like some of the abortive drugs he's tried which made him sleep for 18 solid. But as side effects go they are easily coped with.

As Mark has just started into this years bout, here's hoping it works as well this year!  :)