Hello all.My neurologist gave me a prescription for this yesterday and he said it stays in your system for 24 hours.Has anyone here taken it before?Did it work?My problem is tablets,they seem a waste of time for me as they take way too long to kick in.

According to Wikipedia and multiple other web sites (START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE) Frovatriptan has a half life of 26 hours. What that means is 26 hours after taking the dose you'll half half of it still in your system, after 52 hours you'll still have a quarter, 78 hours and it's down to an eighth.

The result of this is that it offers long term results compared to other triptans, so it can be used as a preventive.

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Quote:

Cephalalgia. 2004 Dec;24(12):1045-8. Frovatriptan for the treatment of cluster headaches. Siow HC, Pozo-Rosich P, Silberstein SD. Jefferson Headache Center, Department of Neurology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA. siow@juno.com Abstract Cluster headaches both episodic and chronic are some of the most challenging headaches to treat. Although effective treatments are now available, some patients continue to be unresponsive to standard therapy. We present 17 patients from our practice whom we treated preventively with frovatriptan, a new triptan with a long half-life. The promising results suggest that this medication may be an useful addition to our ammaterium against this painful disorder.

Being a tablet it probably takes 20 minutes or so to get into your system, which means that it won't be an effective abortive (oxygen or imitrex injections are a lot quicker).

How often / when are you supposed to take the tablets?

tried the frova several years ago. didn't work. too slow. Never Mix Triptans. EVER.
the bb

As far as the frovatriptan goes I havent taken any because its a tablet.It says to take at onset of headache.I do have imigran injectors and oxygen,which Ive been running.Imigran is the British version of imitrex.Im tired of this hell we live in.Headaches seem to get worse the older I get.Have any of you guys noticed that with your cycles?Well got to go to work,hope you all have a pain free day and you all keep positive,Im trying.  Bill

I'm 50 and my cycles have actually gotten a little easier as I've gotten older. I believe it's because I have such an effective regimen now, I can't remember when the last time was I had to rock through a 10. Lithium as a prevent, prednisone for the 10 or so days it takes lithium to kick in, oxygen for the break thru's, and an occasional imitrex jab.

It takes some time and a good neuro to work thru the various treatments available, but it's so worth payoff. I don't see a cure anytime in our near future, but we're making some great advances in treatments. Hang in there Bill.

Joe

For me frovatriptan works very well as an additional preventive medication. During bad times I took up to 3 x 2,5mg frovatriptan per day in addition to the verapamil. There was a randomised controlled trial with frovatriptan for ECH, which was was prematurely discontinued, please see START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE (abstract).

 

Frovatriptan is useless as an abortive.  The onset of action is 3 hours.  By then the attack is long gone.

I use it with great success when I travel.  Once the plane touches down I'm guaranteed to get a hit a half hour later.  So I'll take it 3 hours before that scheduled time.

The great thing about Frova is that it can give you a full day off.  That's nice when you are trying to get somewhere and you don't really know what your schedule is going to be like.

As for side effects, I still get the "snakes up the neck", trouble swallowing and sensitivity to hot drinks in my throat.  I get these with all the triptans I've tried.

So other than travel, I don't really use Triptans.

-Dennis-

The older I got, the more intense the chs got, and the more frequent until I went chronic. Now? Since April 24th, I'm still chronic, but like Joe said, the regimen I use has been tremendously helpful (thanks to this site) and I haven't had anything above a KIP 2 since then. Maybe I'm going into full remission...fingers crossed, wish upon a star, knock on wood, thankujesus! lance