Patient Power®
Get Email Alerts!
Health Topics
Headache Health Center
Health Center Home Audio Programs Videos
Search by Keyword:
Search by Health Topic:
View all Health Topics >

When Treatments Don’t Work

Program: Effective Treatments for Headache and Migraine
<< Previous   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   Next >>

Andrew Schorr:

Yes. And talk to the pharmacist actively about it. They're healthcare professionals too. Pharmacists like to say, We are the most accessible healthcare professional. That's what they go to school for. Talk to them about it. Phyllis, I hope you get this resolved with your daughter and feel free to call back another time and let her know how she's doing.

Okay. Let's see if we can get to Mark from Poulsbo. Mark, you've been holding for a long time.

Caller:

Yeah. I'm a long-term migraine sufferer from the age of 12 and I'm now in my 50s, and one of the things I have, I'm a long-term sufferer. Sometimes I last as much as 12 days. And I've taken a whole battery of drugs. I've been seeing doctors from the East Coast to the West Coast. I've tried everything from Imitrex, the beta blockers, the triptans. Right now I'm taking the Topamax. I've done Neurontin and stuff.

Andrew Schorr:

It's that drug roulette we were talking about.

Caller:

Yeah, I've been through that. I'm willing to go see a witch doctor at this point.

Andrew Schorr:

So your question really is, is there something else.

Caller:

Yeah, I've taken Vicodin and stuff, which does do some things. It makes it a little bit easier when you have the migraine but not a whole heck of a lot.

Andrew Schorr:

Right. And you want to be careful with pain medicines too.

Caller:

Yeah. You know, I'm not a real big fan of taking medications. And I do suffer from sinus headaches too, and I've had them trigger the migraines. No sooner do you get off the sinus headache and it triggers the migraine and stuff so you have a cumulative effect.

Andrew Schorr:

Mark, you have quite a history there. Go ahead and listen and we'll see if Dr. Lucas can talk for a minute about that kind of situation, okay? Thank you for calling in, really appreciate it.

Dr. Lucas:

Mark, I don't have to tell you you've got one of the tougher headaches to treat. Again, we were mentioning earlier that about four to five percent of people will go on to have these chronic headaches. And some people start out when they're younger with episodic migraines, and for reason that aren't known your headaches increase in frequency and intensity, and suddenly you're waking up with a headache every day and you rarely have a headache free day. In this situation of course you want to make sure that there's no underlying problem that's treatable, checking your blood work, maybe checking an MRI.

But you also want to make sure that you're not inadvertently doing it to yourself, not that you would know it. But many, many people will start taking medication for their headaches, for example let's say Vicodin, and oh, your headaches are worse, you take a little more, you take a little more, and suddenly before you know it you're using these pain pills almost on a near daily basis, then the problem arises because your solution has now become the problem. The brain does something called up regulate, which means it pops out more pain receptors that are used to seeing a drug on them practically every single day. Doesn't have to just happen with Vicodin. It can happen with Tylenol. It can happen with aspirin. It can happen with Excedrin. So if you overuse a medication more than two to three times a week on average you're really asking for it, and it could be part of the problem that you've inadvertently made your headaches into daily headaches.

Andrew Schorr:

My vote would be, if you can, go see Dr. Lucas personally at the UW Medical Center, the headache center to see if you can sort it out. We'll be back with a little bit more of Andrew Schorr's Patient Power when we come back on KVI Talk Radio 570. Stay with us.

<< Previous   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   Next >>