-Has anyone gotten a constant headache after starting to use Imitrex? my husband has had one for 3 days now...

-Doseage - We were told no more than 2 a day; and then also told no more than 2-3 injections a week. In general, have other doctors said the same about number of injections per week? (especially when your # of attacks is higher than 2-3/week...)

I have not had that issue with trex, although I don't use very many, oxygen kills most of my attacks. I have read of many on the board using far more then 2-3 a week...sometimes that many in a day. Certainly not advocating that, just saying many have without any problems.

Oxygen has all but elimnated my use of trex.

Joe

Guiseppi wrote on Feb 26^th, 2011 at 9:01pm:

I have not had that issue with trex, although I don't use very many, oxygen kills most of my attacks. I have read of many on the board using far more then 2-3 a week...sometimes that many in a day. Certainly not advocating that, just saying many have without any problems. Oxygen has all but elimnated my use of trex. Joe

Thanks for the response. I don't know where the doctor came up with 2-3x a week, I can't find any reference to it anywhere, I've only read the limits on doseage in a 24-hour period.

I'm going to push for the oxygen again...and for another doctor.

Probably a good call on both points! ;)

Joe

hi ive had severe headache ive had too many imigran injections sometimes 4 a day have too when your in pain. so yes they can cause you pain. good luck anyway

Imitrex nasal has a limit of 2 in a 24 hour period.  I was not told of a limit over the course of a week. In cycles past (before oxygen) I'd go thru 2 a day for days on end and never felt any ill effects.  My neck and shoulder muscles, on the same side as the CH, will often get super tight and sometimes cause a dull, nagging tension type headache.  I attribute this to them getting tired from the pain of the CH since I experienced this tightness before Imitrex was available to me.

Changes in headache patterns are routinely reported here but individual experiences are not reliable guides to the general effect of a med. Medical literature does not support the idea that this is a widespread issues but, couple of studies, report that replacing the suspect triptan with another abortive resolves the problem quickly. All to say: looks like an individual response vs. being a geneal issue with this med.

The issue of dosing hasn't been clearly resolved. Literature reports people using high doses without a problem--when done for short periods.

My understanding is that the FDA has not set a standard on dosing frequency and this "rule" may have been established by insurance  companies as a cost control tool.

I believe you should make this decision with your doc since there are considerations re. other medical conditions which may affect you.

Might be worth a trial of a triptan with a longer period of action to see if this would help.
=====

Headache. 2004 Jul;44(7):713-8.   

 
Subcutaneous sumatriptan induces changes in frequency pattern in cluster headache patients.

Rossi P, Lorenzo GD, Formisano R, Buzzi MG.

Objectives.-To document the relationship between the use of subcutaneous (SQ) sumatriptan (sum) and a change in frequency pattern of cluster headache (CH) in six patients. To discuss the clinical and pathophysiological implications of this observation in the context of available literature. Background.-Treatment with SQ sum may cause an increase in attack frequency of CH but data from literature are scant and controversial. Methods.-Six CH sum-naive patients (three episodic and three chronic according to the International Headache Society (IHS) criteria) are described. Results.-All six patients had very fast relief from pain and accompanying symptoms from the drug but they developed an increase in attack frequency soon after using SQ sum. IN ALL PATIENTS, THE CH RETURNED TO ITS USUAL FREQUENCY WITHIN A FEW DAYS AFTER SQ SUM WAS WITHDRAWN OR REPLACED WITH OTHER DRUGS. Five patients were not taking any prophylactic treatment and SQ sum was the only drug prescribed to treat their headache.

CONCLUSIONS.-PHYSICIANS SHOULD RECOGNIZE THE POSSIBILITY THAT TREATMENT OF CH WITH SQ SUM MAY BE ASSOCIATED WITH AN INCREASED FREQUENCY OF HEADACHE ATTACKS.

PMID: 15209695 [PubMed]

{Note from BJ: Review of PubMed in 1/11 found no citations with this type of data in the last 10-years. The absence of newer reports suggests that experience of recent date is not stimulating much attention on this topic. In view of this reports comments about quick return to the former headache pattern, it appears such changes in frequency is not a significant issue.}

I try to avoid the trex injections as much as I can, I get rebounds, a lot of times when I get hit and take an injection I will end up getting hit again within a couple hours.

Now sometimes I just can't take the pain so I just say heck with it and have taken as many as 4 to 5 injections in a day, I only use 3ml as apposed to the recommended 6ml, my Dr. write's my script so I receive vials. using 3ml will almost always kill the beast within 10 minutes for me.

I have also used Amerge, they are very expensive but when I take one in the evening I can almost always make it through the night.

Right now I am in cycle and PF taking 960MG verap and 10,000 I.U. D3 and 3600 MG Omega 3 Fish oil.

Good Luck To You

When I was first given imitrex, I thought I`d found the silver bullit. Wiped out an attack in 6 minutes. But then the headaches increased in quantity - and I also shadowed continuously between cluster attacks. I am convinced this was due to the imitrex and the price I had to pay. Over the last 4 years, I have controlled each cluster bout with verapamil carefully ramped up under supervision, and massively cut down on imitrex.

michael wrote on Apr 9^th, 2011 at 3:10pm:

When I was first given imitrex, I thought I`d found the silver bullit. Wiped out an attack in 6 minutes. But then the headaches increased in quantity - and I also shadowed continuously between cluster attacks. I am convinced this was due to the imitrex and the price I had to pay. Over the last 4 years, I have controlled each cluster bout with verapamil carefully ramped up under supervision, and massively cut down on imitrex.

Have you tried using oxygen instead of imitrex?

I also thought that imitrex was a god send and took it every night just before bed and it stopped my night time hits but I immediately started getting loads of rebound headaches all day and felt so rough that I decided to stop taking it. I had a bad couple of days and then started to feel much better - and went back to my usual night time hits only. I am in cycle at the moment and have found the D3 regime works for me.