DHE 45 Injection Users

Could the users of the DHE 45 injection share their experiences?

Insurance is such a finicky thing as you all know. And looking at my preferred drug list for abortive drugs DHE 45 is covered so I am just looking to get as much info as I can about it. I have been scouring the web so I would love your personal experiences.

As it stands, Relpax works for me but is NOT covered. Maxalt is covered, but they only cover 9 and it does not work all of the time.

babyseal, (love your name!), dhe is about the only drug i never tried, in my 43-yr adventure. i just wanted to mention that you MAY be able to get relpax covered by your insurance, if you have your doctor write them and list all the things you have tried without success.

years ago, i had my nice family practitioner do this for me, in order to get WAAAAAY more than the "normal" amounts of maxalt and amerge. these are the only two triptans which work for me.

we would all like to hear of your decision and possible trial of dhe. i guess you really have to do it, because it's preferred by your ins. company. btw, there is a protocol your doctor must follow (get the scoop faxed or mailed to you) if you decide to try getting an adequate amount of relpax. dianne

Hopefully once I find a better job I can get better insurance (through a local hospital). I have a neuro follow up in the beginning of March so I will be discussing this thoroughly with him then, but until then I am working with his nurse practitioner over the phone.

I am sure they arent going to want to throw injections my way without "patient training".

My insurance will only cover what is on their "list". I think I may also try to go another route and get some samples from my GP to hold me over to close the gap when I run out from my script.

i lived on samples for many years, when i had not-so-good insurance. (now i'm old and have medicare coverage).

but i have to warn you that companies are way more stingy with samples than they used to be. both my family practitioner and neuro saved me lots of maxalt and amerge.......not without knowing my history of failures with everything else, of course.

i hope this works for you, and that you get better insurance. dianne

Have you tried DHE before? Any success? It also comes in a nasal spray form under the name Migranal. Never did anything for me, but then again I don't primarily get migraines and Triptans don't either. Many doctors are against giving patients at home injections for whatever reason. I've had injections for B12 before and they were easy and painless, so I personally have no problem with it. I wish I could have something as a rescue med at home for when my normal meds don't work! My insurances have never accepted my doctor's requests for quantity overrides. Some however will let you pay the co-pay again to get another 9 pills or whatever, or will let you fill two preferred Triptan prescriptions in one month (if two of them work for you). Definitely check into it. There should be more than one preferred Triptan. Also, sometimes they cover different amounts of different ones, so you may get more pills if you switch to a different one. Some folks can also get a higher strength Triptan and cut them in half (under doctor's permission) so you have double. Its ridiculous when something works and you can't get enough of it. Best wishes.

Nope, I have not tried it. Just curious about it.

The others on the list I have tried over the years and they have not worked. But hey.. if insurance will pay, they can- and I am more than willing to give it another shot.

I have took DHE for a long time. It worked fairly well as far as reducing the pain, sometimes stopping the migraine altogether, but it made me exhausted all the time, caused rebound headaches, and, after awhile, it took more than one injection to touch one of my migraines. Migranal, for me, was absolutely useless. Good luck!

Thank you for sharing your story chelle. How does it typically come prepared?

I had DHE45 few years ago, under medical supervision in hospital over five days period to break a long cycle of M. At one point it affected my BP very badly, but then it was stabilised, and in terms of result it was fantastic. I had the longest break with no M, no h/a, what a great feeling.

But I have not tried any other kind of DHE45, as mentioned by people above, so I am not sure what kind of treatment you had in mind BabySeal. I think it is worth trying but try to invesigate more and ask your Dr what is available and what might suit you best. I think it might be worth trying.

Good luck, whatever you decide.

Hi Babyseal,

I've used DHE injections for about 3-1/2 years now, and it works very well for most types of migraines, especially hormone-related ones. It doesn't always work very well for weather-related migraines (where there's that feeling of exploding pressure).

Usually after taking the DHE, I need to sleep for at least 1-2 hours and I'm very tired for the next day or two. However, it works better than any of my other options. I've found I need to be very careful to use it no more than 2x a week or its effectiveness decreases (my prescription allows its use 3x a week). I try not to use it even twice a week.

It does upset my stomach so I take it with Promethazine.

I was prescribed Migranol at first, but requested the injections instead because I've had bad experiences with nasally-ingested medications. The self-injections are easy after the first couple of times.

I've also received IV DHE while hospitalized.

I used Relpax for years and had good luck with it, but after all those years it became less effective. I went through every one of the other triptans over the years before Relpax. None worked as well, for me, as the Relpax at that time.

You cannot take a triptan within 24 hours, I think, of taking DHE, so it's one or the other. Please check into that before trying it and take that into consideration.

Hopefully insurance will cover your meds. Good luck!

Thank you very much for all of the replies everyone!

Thanks for sharing your lengthy experience tecky. Although I do know that medications do effect everyone in vastly varying degrees, it is always interesting to read up about it.

I spoke to my insurance and it does appear that they cover self injections of DHE, but won't cover Relpax ... hmm and I even asked nicely and said "please"... go figure!!

I definitely have many things to discuss with my Neuro at my next follow up!

I have tried DHE twice and it made my heart race, made my bp go way high and made me sick to my stomach.

Probably made me sick because my bp went so high so quickly.

But, my daughter gets it when her pain gets bad enough to go to the ER and it works great for her.

I think it would be worth a try.

Good Luck!

Cindy