Preventative Treatments

I'd like to hear of everyone's experiences with taking preventive meds or treatments like Topomax, beta blockers, Benadryl, etc.  Any success stories out there??

I tried almost all of them, except Benadryl, with mixed success.  I'd been having migraines all my life, often one per week.  The preventatives did cut down on the frequency, especially sodium valproate, but the side effects were horrible.  Weight gain, bone loss (I am now osteoporotic at age 49) fogged feeling, sleepiness.

Giving up gluten almost completely cured my migraines.  You might try that before going to a preventative.

For me I found a plant supplement called FeverFew which I take in Vitamin form has really helped me. Need to take 1000mg every day and it takes about a month before you see any results. Its not a complete cure but definitely cuts down the occurences of migraines. Check it out on the net there is heaps of research on it and its not another chemical and has very few side effects!

My doctor just prescribed chelated magnesium to try as a prevantative.  Haven't been taking it long enough to tell results, but its something else to try.

I swear by Topamax. It's amazing stuff!

why?

I tried amitriptyline (didn't work) and Topamax (didn't work, and made me crushingly, agonizingly, want-to-lie-down-right-where-I-am tired and unable to think).

I finally stumbled upon beta blockers, specifically metoprolol, and that works very well for me.  It doesn't completely prevent the migraines, but as long as I am not too ill-behaved with my sleep habits and as long as I get regular exercise, the metoprolol reduces me down from 2-3 migraines per week to only the rare breakthrough.

But, everyone is different.  You may have to try a number of things before you find out what works for you.

Original Post by gourmande:

why?

Why do I swear by Topamax? Pre-T, I was having 9-day migraines during which I was completely non-functional.... huddled in the bed whimpering in pain. Light sensitive, sound sensitive, smells got to me, nauseated... classic migraines. I would no sooner get OUT of a migraine as I was thrown headlong into the next one. Within 2 weeks of starting Topamax, I was functional for the first time in almost 2 years and I DIDN'T have a migraine. It was an amazing feeling.

right now im taking a bunch of meds. I started with topamax- and loved it. unfortunately my doctor took me off of that because i started to grow a tolerance to it. Now im on 150mg of indocin (if you have hemicrania continuum like i do, its the only thing that really works). i use robaxin (a back spasm relaxer) for when i have a migraine. and i take neurontin at night- again, a life saver. Unfortunately my blood pressure was too low for beta blockers (i learned that the hard way)

ive found with the migraine meds it take a few duds until you find the right one, kind of like kissing a few frogs. The indocin makes my face break out in cycles, and also im losing a lot of hair, but ill deal with boils and sores if ii have to, to be migraine free.

developed tolerance. two words that migraine sufferers must dread.