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Cluster Headache Help and Support >> Cluster Headache Specific >> prednisone mood swings?
(Message started by: wogdoggy on Sep 1st, 2006, 9:56am)

Title: prednisone mood swings?
Post by wogdoggy on Sep 1st, 2006, 9:56am
 Hi folks been 2 yrs since my last episodes and are back in full force now.Doc prescribed some prednisone about 40 mgs a day to start.Do these pills make anybody else crazy? They make my heart race make me irritable and after taking them for sometime i realized they really dont help at all and quit taking them.The only 3  night i was pain free was the day my doctor gave me an injection of some steroid and a B12 boost.The other nights were when I flooded myself with water for 2 days prior.My nutrionist said to drink lotsa water with lemon because my Brain craved water.I also stopped cafeine sunflower seeds pot smoking and chocolate.All the things i really enjoy.I thought the water thing was working but the headaches came back again although not as intense.problem is Id get up 3 or 4 times a night to relieve myself and felt shadow headaches the whole time.I personally feel all the preventative medicines dont work at all.And to try natural prevetatives like kudzo water b12 vitamin c etc..Basically it is what it is and the cycle must run its course and all the preventative meds will do is screw up your stomach and give you mood swings.i use maxalt and imitrex ,,,of course not together.the insurance pays for 9 a month of each.when i tried to get another script of imitex the insurance would not cover it and the pills were 220 bucks.i told the pharmacist.."now i know whats giving me the headaches"..lol...so i asked the doc for maxalt and the insurance coverd those ,,so in essence i have 18 days covered by the insuarnce,
  When the headaches wake me up at night I immediately jump into a hot shower and sometimes it works so i am able to "save' a dose that night for another day.My conclusion is the preventative methods dont work they actually screw me up more than help.I am trying to use natural methods to soften the pain level,and the maxalts or imitrex to kill the bad ones..Hopefully ,eventually the cycle wil end soon and I can get thru this thing without all the crappy meds.

right now i take b12" brain pills" there are differnt types i'm told....kudzo, water water water,vitamin c probably 5000mg a day..6 b complex pills ,ginger butterbur,feverview,...
After reading these forums I am also going to try magnesium and omega 3..the salmon story intigued me.LOL..

Pardon me for my run on sentence and typing skills and hopefully something I contributed will help somebody here as other posters and threads have helped me.

Title: Re: prednisone mood swings?
Post by Bob_Johnson on Sep 1st, 2006, 10:09am
Reactions to Pred can be quite varied but your problem will clear quickly after stopping. Print this and take to your doc and negotiate another trial. Unfortunately, it's not unusual to have to try several meds & doses to find a combination which works.

Here is a link to read and print and take to your doctor.  It describes preventive, transitional, abortive and surgical treatments for CH. Written by one of the better headache docs in the U.S.  (2002)
 
http://www.brightok.net/~mnjday/chtherapy.pdf  
==========
Suggest, strongly, either one of these books:
MANAGEMENT OF HEADACHE AND HEADACHE MEDICATIONS, 2nd ed. Lawrence D. Robbins, M.D.; pub. by Springer. $59 at Amazon.Com.  It covers all types of headache and is primarily focused on medications. While the two chapters on CH total 42-pages, the actual relevant material is longer because of multiple references to material in chapters on migraine, reflecting the overlap in drugs used to treat. I'd suggest reading the chapters on migraine for three reasons: he makes references to CH & medications which are not in the index; there are "clinical pearls" about how to approach the treatment of headache; and, you gain better perspective on the nature of headache, in general, and the complexities of treatment (which need to be considered when we create expectations about what is possible). Finally, women will appreciate & benefit from his running information on hormones/menstrual cycles as they affect headache. Chapter on headache following head trauma, also. Obviously, I'm impressed with Robbins' work (even if the book needs the touch of a good editor!) (Somewhat longer review/content statement at 3/22/00, "Good book....")

HEADACHE HELP, Revised edition, 2000; Lawrence Robbins, M.D., Houghton Mifflin, $15. Written for a nonprofessional audience, it contains almost all the material in the preceding volume but it's much easier reading. Highly recommended.



Title:           Re: prednisone
Post by rbmb on Sep 1st, 2006, 12:19pm
Yeah, I'm going through pretty much the same thing....pred. taper, sort of irritable, amped up. Waking up with mild HAs one night, bad enough ones the next night that I have to take a shot but I think they would be a lot worse without the pred. Problem is once the taper is over, I think the HAs will come on with a vengence, so its just sort of putting it off.
        Rich


           

Title: Re: prednisone mood swings?
Post by brewcrew on Sep 1st, 2006, 4:43pm
Doggy,

Yes, if someone walks into my office and starts whining while I'm on prednisone, I'm likely to strangle the living shit out of them. I've learned to keep in mind that it's just the drugs talking and to keep my cool.

One bit of advice - if you're ever on it again, you should NEVER just stop taking it, especially at or above about 30 mg/day. If you've been taking it for less than 3 or so days, it's probably not a problem to just stop, but if it's been more than 3 days, you should taper off. You can get some nasty (and potentially harmful) side effects if you just stop.

One other thing - 40mg may not be enough to stop the beast in its tracks. My tapers always start at 60mg, and they've been as high as 80.

Please discuss these things with your doctor, and have a great weekend.



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