Lets imagine a hypothetical scenario - a migraine patient is prescribed a Triptan (Imitrex, Frove, etc), a birth-control pill and some anti-depressants like Amitriptyline (Elavil, Tryptanol) or Zoloft, Prozac or Paxil. Anti-depressants are often used as an off-label prescription for migraine headaches, nothing unusual here.
How many of you take a similar combination of prescription meds? Quite a few, I would imagine. Have you ever wondered how those drugs affect you, what they actually do to help you with your migraines?
The answer is simple - they all regulate re-uptake of Serotonin. It's a substance your body creates to keep your nervous system in balance. Low levels of Serotonin might cause panic attacks, depression and other serious neurological disorders. If that's not enough, it also might cause migraines. Triptans, some birth-control pills and anti-depressants all have the ability to regulate the level of serotonin and might help to abort or prevent migraines.
Now, back to the original question - do your doctors know exactly how those drugs work? Would they be prescribing you this mix if they understood the mechanics of serotonin balance?
Probably not. In July 2006, FDA issued a warning that mixing Triptans with anti-depressant might result in serotonin syndrome, "a life-threatening condition that occurs when there's too much of the chemical serotonin in your blood".
It's sort off like OD'ing on LSD minus the fun part.
On top of that, the Pill you are taking might also be pulling at serotonin levels when you least expect it. "Serotonin is affected by hormones. An increase in the female hormone estrogen triggers an increase in serotonin. Birth control pills containing estrogen produce headaches when serotonin levels fall in pill free days. (A drop in estrogen levels during menstruation produces a decrease in serotonin, which can bring on migraine because blood vessels dilate.)"
If you have more than a couple of migraine attacks a month and you take all 3 of the above-mentioned groups of medications, it might be time to seek a second opinion. After all, your migraines are not getting better, are they?
Wednesday
What Your Doctor Doesn't Know Might Hurt You
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3 comments:
Good post. As the director of Novus Medical Detox, we regularly see people put on antidepressants for off-label purposes or to treat a side effect of another drug. We see that natural products are often more effective than the drugs and don't have the side effects. After seeing the study showing that 52% of the femaie suicides in Sweden in 2006 were on antidepressants, we should avoid these dangerous drugs. Demand that your doctor find the cause and treat it and not just a pill for the symptoms.
Steve Hayes
http://novusdetox.com
Doctor, thank you. Migraine crowd is petty desperate, however. Whatever our doctor can come up with, we'll try it. The problem is that our doctors are not always the most knowledgeable when it comes to neurology...
Do lots of people get hooked on antidepressants?
It's quite a conundrum. My doctor just prescribed me too dose anti-depressants to go along with my birth control & Immitrex Personally I wasn't looking forward to taking even more pills, but like Rain said - the migraine crowd is getting desperate. I decided to make a case study out of myself and try out a different treatment every month or 6 weeks or so. Perhaps in time we will find a cause for migraines and eventually a proper treatment, maybe even cure. But for now we hold on to our pills, pants & heads - see whet comes of this.
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