I'm a 20 year chronic patient who's tried just about every preventative around and had 2 RF rhizotomies.  I use O2 and subcutaneous DHE to abort.

My current year-round preventative regimen is 240 mg verapamil BID, periactin 20 mg BID, and amitriptyline 200 mg at bedtime.  I'm in a bad cluster cycle right now that busted through the preventatives and am at the point where my MD was no longer comfortable continuing dexamethasone.

My neurologist "prescribed" 10 mg of melatonin, which is OTC (to which I admittedly rolled my eyes and thought he's just guessing at this point).  After 2 nights of treatment I was at 6 days totally PF!  I skipped my dose last night due to having to drive a long distance this morning very early for work and not wanting to be too groggy to drive safely, and had a few shadows return, but nothing full fledged.

It may not work for all, but melatonin is OTC and I thought that I'd let others know it seems to be working for me (and I was skeptical at best), so give it some consideration.  As always, check for interactions with your other meds.  Good luck!  Hope this can help someone else too!

So glad to hear it's giving you some pain free time. For some, like you, it prevents all attacks, for some only the nite time hits, for some it doesn't help at all! The nature of the beast.  :-/

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Take a sec and read this link to make sure you are getting the maximum effectiveness out of your oxygen. I find I can usually abort my attacks using only 02 with the trex only as an emergency back up.

Welcome to the board, hope the melatonin keeps the beast at bay forever! ;)

Joe

It's good to get more votes for things that work. Melatonin has been around here for awhile, and we had a thread comparing dose and physical characteristics. We found dose rates anywhere from 3mg/day to 18mg/day. I find 15mg/day to be effective. Interesting your doc would Rx it. Blessings. lance

So happy I found this site.  I'll have to look into some of the melatonin info on here.

I should have been clearer - I generally use only O2 (via a demand valve) to abort attacks at home.  I only use the DHE if away from home when one strikes, or as an emergency backup if the O2 doesn't work.

CHMatt wrote on Jun 30^th, 2011 at 9:08am:

So happy I found this site.  I'll have to look into some of the melatonin info on here. I should have been clearer - I generally use only O2 (via a demand valve) to abort attacks at home.  I only use the DHE if away from home when one strikes, or as an emergency backup if the O2 doesn't work.

A fellow demand valve junkie, we're brothers in air! ;) Yeah, your routine pretty well mimics mine!

Joe