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.

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

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?

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

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