Daily Preventative meds questions

I am so glad I found this page. I am a 44 year old female suffering 10 or more migraines a month for the past 3 years. I finally went to a neurologist that specializes in migraines. He wants to put me on a daily preventative called LAMICTAL. It is an anticonvulsive medication. Has anyone in the group used it or heard of it? I wanted some more info on it before I started taking it. I am very healthy but going through early menopause (past 3 years). 2nd treatment plan is to just manage them with IMATREX, which is pretty much what I have been doing. Any advise would be appreciated.

Welcome! Its great you finally saw a true headache specialist and are starting a daily preventative, as that is typically recommended when you are getting as many migraines as you are. I haven't tried that one, but it is fairly common. If you have any specific concerns, I'd talk to your pharmacist and/or doctor.

Otherwise, reading the prescribing information you received with your prescription is a good start. Know what potential side effects there are.

If reading the long list of potential side effects concerns you, it may be helpful to look up the full prescribing information from the manufacturer which includes study data as to what percent of patients got each side effects (ie. although often there is a long list of them, many may occur only < 1% of the time, and those that are more common are typically more minor).

I hope you find it helpful. Keep in mind that these sorts of meds won't work right away (if at all)...they should be tried per your doctor's instructions, often for months at a time, tapering up the dosage in some cases. If it doesn't prove helpful, there are lots of other options; often trial & error is required. Best wishes.

I had a very bad experience with Lamictal.   I did ok for the first month, and then I developed a case of severe nausea. Every time I got up, I was very nauseas and had to lay back down.  (I had never previously suffered nausea with my migraines). My neurologist however was convinced it was not the Lamictal and increased the dosage!   it took another 2 weeks to get him to take me off of it, but it still took a long time to get out of my system.  I literally spent 2-1/2 months in bed.  On the positive side I did lose 20 pounds.

It also made my migraines much worse in that time period and I developed a bad case of hyperacousis. Everything was very very loud all the time ( not just with a migraine).  Anything over a loud speaker (speaker phone, TV, radio, PA System, etc...) triggered an immediate migraine.  After researching hyperacousis, I found that many medicines can create it (along with tinnitus) including Lamictal.  I spent $5000 getting treatments by an audiologist who specializes in hyperacousis (not covered by insurance).  It is much better today, I don't have to run out of stores playing music and can stand TVs at normal volume, but I am still sensitive to anything that is on the loud side which remains a major migraine trigger for me. (Like I didn't have enough problems.)

So for me, Lamictal was a nightmare.  As with all preventatives, they affect everyone differently.  However, it is worth noting that Lamictal (lamotigrine) is no longer on the recommended list for migraine put out by the American Academy of Neurology ( found to be ineffective)

https://www.aan.com/PressRoom/Home/PressRelease/1062

Here are some previous posts on Lamictal:

https://migrainepage.forumotion.net/t3051-lamictal-for-migraines?highlight=Lamictal

Martin

Hello and Welcome.

I'm glad you found us.

Finding the right preventative is tricky- what works well for one person can be terrible for another. Migraines are tough to treat and it is a game of trial and error. There are very few medications that are approved for migraine prevention and so many preventatives are off label and designed to treat something else as well as migraine. I have lost track on the number of preventatives I have tried. It may take trying a few to find one that works for you.

Do any other abortives work for you? Imitrex is great, but can cause rebound and other things, however it shouldn't be used for long periods of time. It might be worth looking into other abortives and other ways to manage the pain and other symptoms of the headache. It might be worth trying to get in with a headache specialist and see if there is anything else you could use to help with the bad ones.

I hope the lamictal works.

Pain free days,
sailingm

so first thing Topomax is the anti convulsant you want NOT Lamictal that is actually used as a mood stabalizer for bi polar. im on both. heres a great list of meds. Relpax 40min relief, Maxalt 20min relief, Treximet 5-10 min relief. i am not lying about any of this. i suffered for 10 yrs with what was diagnosed as chronic sinusitis and of course the guaffinese just gave me rebound migraines. i get clusters,hormonals,cervicogenic, and the worst are like Bells Palsey. come to find out i got allergy tested by an ENT definately not an allergist, people are not aware they run seperate test, anyway i progress, im allergic to tons. i get my allergy shots, got tubes put in my ears at 32yrs old and went from 18-20 migraines a month to about 3. hope this helps.