Migraines/Prednisone?

[Tigger&Belle]

Have any of you ever taken prednisone to break the cycle of migraines? I have almost daily migraines and the neurologist thinks that some of them might be rebound headaches from the meds I take for the headaches (Maxalt). He prescribed a 10 day course of prednisone that will hopefully lesson the severity/occurances of the migraines so I can get off the Maxalt.

So, have any of you done this? Any success? How did you do with the prednisone and any side effects? I'm on a taper dose--3 tablets daily for 3 days, then 2 tablets for 3 days, etc.

 

[chell]

I've never had it for headaches but for other things.

Prepare your family, friends and co-workers. Tell them to stay out of your path. In a few days you my feel like you can rip someones head off just for looking at you. Be prepared to wake up at 2 am with some of the worst cravings of your life. Don't be shocked if you get the shakes. The side effects lasted for me about 5-7 days after I finished the pills. Of course you may take them and not have a single side effect - I hope that is the case for you. But I wanted to be honest and let you know what happened to me.

Hope your headaches go away quickly.

 

[Candace]

Prednisone makes me "wild" as in jittery, unable to sleep, jumpy, etc. I do have migraines but have never been prescribed prednisone for it. I also have never taken Maxalt, however, so maybe he knows what he's doing? I take Imitrex, and even though it doesn't work perfectly every time, it's the best I have done in finding something. I also think, however, as I have grown older, the headaches have lessened in intensity/duration. Hopefully, before I die (!) LOL!, I will have stopped having them altogether. Mine were at their worst in my 30's - 40's.

 

[#1MMFan]

Prednisone /prednisolone; also known to give a feeling of euphoria/well-being. Can't imagine you will have serious side-effects with a short course.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

The ironic thing is before I went to my Thursday Dr appt I brought my son to the bus and was chatting with the other moms. The subject of steroids came up (the legal kind...) and one mom said that she'd been given a short course of them once and was fine, except for the last day. Then she was terribly emotional. She said that she'd never go on them again. And then I went to the dr and he suggested them. I didn't know quite what to think, but my headaches are bad and I somehow need to get out of the cycle.

I hadn't realized that even Rx meds can cause rebound headaches. I knew it was true of OTC meds and I try to limit those.

Maybe I should warn the DISers that I'm having lunch with tomorrow! That will be day 3 of the highest dose before I start tapering down the dose.

Jittery could be good--maybe I'll get some things done around here. I was afraid that it would make me tired, but at least that wasn't the case yesterday.

I had headaches as a preteen/teen/young adult and then almost none until I was about 39-40yo. The last year has been horrible.

The "funny" thing is that my DH is understanding to a certain extent, but really does not get it. He gets occular migraines which are the auras, but without pain. Of course he locks himself in a room and can't function even without the pain, but that's a different story. On Thursday he had an actual migraine and was totally out of it--thought he was going to die. It did go away fairly quickly, at least the bad pain. He was amazed that I'd been having those between 3-6 times a week for the last several months and have been able to do anything. Of course I think he's forgotten it a couple days later and even though my head is throbbing I still need to go do my errands. I would like to curl up in a dark, quiet room, also...

 

[mookie]

Just an FYI - I also have migranes and was on Maxalt for awhile, and I didn't think it helped my migranes at all. My dr. said it is a powerful but slow releasing migrane med, so if you take it too late, you could just catch the tail end of one migrane wave, but the upswing of another, and not catch either of them fully, thus the feeling of it never going away.

I went off of Maxalt and was given Imitrex, and have been happy with it since. Maybe just try a different migrane med? Never heard of taking prednisone.

 

[JulieWent]

Yes. I had a five day long migraine this summer. My sweet doctor referred to it as a "super migraine." She gave me a mega dose of imitrex, kept me in her office for an hour to observe the effects, and then put me on prednisone to reduce the swelling that having a migraine for five days would have caused. (Cycle -- migraine starts, take something to make it go away, that something works, but the swelling is still there to irritate the area of the brain that causes my migraines. When the something that I took wears off, the swelling irritates the area of the brain and re-triggers the migraine. The prednisone worked, not on the headache, but on the swelling.) It seemed to work. After two days, the cycle was broken and my migraines went back to being regular every-once-in-awhile beasties that I can control with one does of Imitrex.

Julie

 

[pooh4evr]

I also have frequent migraines- sensitive to light, sound nausea..) but married to an internal medicine MD has its perks- although I feel a bit like a guinea pig sometimes! We have tried imitrex, relpax (pretty good), maxalt (2nd choice) (pils and the "fast melt") and Zomig. (1st choice) We have also tried Topamax which is taken daily and prevents the migraines completely. I have found the Zomig to work best for me it is a nasal spray and can make your nose feel a bit weird but the headache goes away quickly- about 20-30 min!! I would take the Topamax daily but we are thinking of having a 3rd child and the data on pregnant women taking the med is nonexistent- so no go with that! Good Luck!! I have 1 sister who also gets migraines but she is allergic to most pain meds- (tylenol, advil, aleve..)but I can't remember what she takes!

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Just an FYI - I also have migranes and was on Maxalt for awhile, and I didn't think it helped my migranes at all. My dr. said it is a powerful but slow releasing migrane med, so if you take it too late, you could just catch the tail end of one migrane wave, but the upswing of another, and not catch either of them fully, thus the feeling of it never going away.

I went off of Maxalt and was given Imitrex, and have been happy with it since. Maybe just try a different migrane med? Never heard of taking prednisone.

Imitrex doesn't work for me--makes me feel sick to my stomach--it eventually helps the pain, but not as well as Maxalt. If I want the Maxalt to work faster I take one of the dissolving ones, but I don't like the taste and it makes me gag, but if I chase it with water and a chewable Vit C it's bearable.

I haven't heard of the Zomig. I've tried Topamax, but I got cold sores on it. I think we will try it again and see if the cold sores return. Maybe that was a fluke.

Ugh, 5 day migraine! Not fun for sure.

Some days I'm glad that we don't keep a gun in the house.

 

[Poohnatic]

Good luck. I've never gotten that bad, the Maxalt had fair to middling results and injectible Imitrex is my preferred dosing at this time. I found my biggest trigger is Nutrasweet and only get sporadic migraines. It used to be 3-4 a week.

My sister had some success with the Prednisone treatment. Went from nearly daily to about 3-4 a month. Not great, but much better than walking around daily with a migraine.

Suzanne

 

[LMC]

My doctor didn't use the prednisone method. I tried several drugs before getting on the regime I now use. I take Topamax daily, I have one headache relief drug (can't read the name on the written RX and don't have an empty pill bottle on hand) that helps a little IF I catch the headaches early. Then I take MaxAlt when I get more severe headaches. I have just learned to take my meds before my headaches get too bad. I hate taking meds but now realize that I will end up taking it anyway so why not catch things on the front end and feel better instead of waiting, taking the meds, and still hurt because I let it go too far.
The Topamax does take several weeks to kick in so be aware of that if you decide to try that med. But it does work. I didn't realize how much until I went off of it earlier this year for a couple of months and my daily headaches returned. When I am on Topamax, I have a few per week.

 

[DisneyBoundForever]

yes, I have had it to break 4-5 week migraines at a time. nothing on the market works for me. the first time I used the med. pack, I also took Duradrin every 30 mins till pain started to go away. the second time I went over a month with a migraine. they tryed this again. It did not work as good as the first time.but I still did it.

 

[Jennasis]

Migraine sufferer here! I am about to drive my poor nuero crazy as we are trying to find the right combo of drugs that will work. Currently we are on the daily Topamax and using Relpax as a rescue. The relpax works SOMETIMES (but it makes my neck and chest feel so tight I almost can't stand it! and sometime I dread that feeling so much that by the time I convince myself to take the dang drug, it just doesn't have that much affect...in fact I just took one and it isn't really helping). The Topamax, has sort of been helping, but it took over a month to titrate up to the 100mg daily dose (started off with 25 mg/day for a week and then worked my way up to a 100). I have some weird side effects like at night or in low light I get this odd strobing effect and all carbonated beverages taste AWFUL!

I have also been on Verapamil (both the 180 dose and the 260). If the Topamax doesn't work our next move is Nuerontin. I may ask at my next visit if I can try somehting other than Relpax since I am not loving it.

HOWEVER, on to the OP question. YES the nuero did give my a pred pack a few months back to break the cycle and it was a MIRACLE drug. Unfortunately the miracle lasted only 2 weeks. It was the best two weeks I've had since the Migraines started in May. It was a 6 day dose pack and I felt like I could've run a marathon. I didn't sleep much on the first two nights. But by the second day I was feeling GOOOOOOOD! I think I may ask about going on it again...

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Jenn, good to know you did ok on it. These headaches are a pain, literally. I took my prednisone today before going to the grocery store (I'd already taken Maxalt for a headache--have dinner group tonight and didn't want a headache for that), but forgot to eat lunch. I don't know if I'm coming or going right now. Sleepy from the Maxalt, but wound up, I guess from the prednisone. And I have to make some appetizers for dinner group (and be on time since we're on appetizer duty...) so I can't nap. Time for a long shower!

 

[mafibisha]

Just a little FYI for those who may not know:

Be sure to ask your doctor for trial samples of your meds.

They receive most brands from sale representatives to give patients, allowing you to see if they work before you buy them.

HTH.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Just a little FYI for those who may not know:

Be sure to ask your doctor for trial samples of your meds.

They receive most brands from sale representatives to give patients, allowing you to see if they work before you buy them.

HTH.

I usually do that, but forgot these last 2 trips to the dr. Makes me mad when I forget!

 

[luvwinnie]

I've never had pred FOR MIGRAINES, but I was on it for my autoimmune arthritis....as a side effect the migraines also got better...BUT they came back with a vengeance when I started tapering off the pred after a few months. I had to taper very very slowly.

I hope it helps you.