Posted by katekite on June 3, 2002, at 18:02:47
In reply to Re: migraines on adrafinil or provigil anyone? » Iago Camboa, posted by JonW on June 3, 2002, at 14:18:39
Oooh so nice of you to call me an expert... one of these days I'll solve myself and then I might agree with the designation.
Migraine is a topical issue for me as I think I've had one going now for about a week, very mild, induced by me trying to up my dose of Adderall. Now I'm back on ritalin. It better go away soon.
Migraines root cause is an alteration in blood flow to the head. Arteries are muscular tubes and the muscle tone is influenced by almost everything we take in pill form, and also by foods and drinks and sleep. Migraine occurs when an artery spasms (gets a muscle cramp, in a way) causing it to either dilate or constrict and causing pain through not enough or too much blood flow. Apparently the drugs you are on is making you more sensitive to natural triggers for them, or could be triggering them itself. This is very very common.
You could play with the doses of what you are on, change to provigil, or take something in addition to prevent them.
Here's a cut/paste of some things you could try as preventative agents... perhaps a tiny dose of one of them would allow you to continue the current regimen. Make sure you look up the potential interactions for any of them before trying it, and start it when not having a migraine, as they most likely do not stop migraines already in progress. This is from: http://www.neurohaven.com/migrain1.htm
"The prophylactic therapy of migraine has seen a wide variety of agents utilized, perhaps one of the most widely used being that of the beta adrenergic blocker Propranolol which is still considered a drug of choice for this indication. This drug, however, is contraindicated in patients with concurrent asthma. Alternatively a cardioselective beta blocker such as Metoprolol or Atenolol may be utilized.
Calcium channel blockers are known to inhibit arterial vasospasm and to block platelet serotonin release and aggregation. Verapamil is an example of this category of drug and is widely utilized in the prophylaxis of migraine. Of the calcium channel blockers, nimodipine (Nimotop ®) has the greatest selectivity for the cerebral vasculature but is approved only for management of vasospasm accompanying subarachnoid hemorrhage. Clonidine, an alpha agonist, has also demonstrated efficacy with regard to prophylaxis in the management of migraine. Cyproheptadine (Periactin ®) has been utilized successfully in the treatment of childhood migraine. Finally the tricyclic antidepressants also have been utilized for this Purpose though the tolerability of these drugs may vary widely from one individual to another. The most recent drug to be approved for the use of migraine prophylaxis is divalproex sodium (Depakote ®). This drug has been widely utilized over many years as an anticonvulsant but only recently came to be recognized as having efficacy with regard to migraine prophylaxis. This array of pharmacologic agents both for the abortive therapy and prophylaxis of migraine attacks offers numerous options for the clinician to choose from and hence to tailor treatment to the needs of each individual migraine sufferer."
kate
poster:katekite
thread:108514
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020602/msgs/108561.html