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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2002 >> stop everything and try axert !!
        
(Message started by: mdsmith on Mar 7^th, 2002, 11:29am)

Title: stop everything and try axert !!
Post by mdsmith on Mar 7^th, 2002, 11:29am

i had chronic ch for five years and tried everything, oxygen, imitrex, prednisone, cafergot, verapamil, tons of excedrin, deviated septum surgery, and a ton of other medications. nothing helped especially when my travel schedule changed my sleep schedule. however, i just tried a new headache medication that was released by the FDA within the past year called axert (www.axert.com). Axert constricts the blood vessels in your forehead and gave me relief within one hour for a day at a time. Furthermore, i've had a chronic headache / cluster headache for the past year and i'm finding this may have just broke my cycle outright. SIDE EFFECTS are not even present. try AXERT and get off this site forever !!! good luck !!!

Title: Re: stop everything and try axert !!
Post by Linda T on Mar 7^th, 2002, 4:12pm

Glad it worked for you, however, I just read patient info at axert.com, I quote -

"Safety and effectiveness of AXERT have not been established for cluster headache, which is present in an older, predominantly male population. AXERT should only be used when you have been diagnosed with migraine. "

As has been said on this board (over and over, I might add) YOU CAN'T TREAT CH LIKE MIGRAINE.

Title: Re: stop everything and try axert !!
Post by Lori on Mar 7^th, 2002, 5:05pm

I understand CH is not the same as migraines...but...it also seems that many use (with success) Imitrex...isn't that for migraines? I read something about Axert in one of the links I followed from this site to somewhere and found a little info on Axert (fairly new drug) and thought I would ask to try it. It doesn't hurt to try ANYTHING when you are in so much pain. Maybe it will work for some, just like Imitrex works for some. Glad it worked for you!!!

Title: Re: stop everything and try axert !!
Post by pinksharkmark on Mar 7^th, 2002, 5:16pm

Axert (almotriptan) is one of the newest "triptans" to be released onto the market. Other triptans are Imitrex (sumatriptan... the very first one released), Amerge (naratriptan), Zomig (zolmatriptan) and Maxalt (rizatriptan).

All of them have been reported to work on clusterheads, none of them (to my knowledge, at least) have been reported to BREAK a cycle. They are "abortives", that is to say they will stop a headache and progress and prevent another from occurring during their "half life" period or a bit longer, but they are not classified as "preventatives".

Here is a description of the receptor sites affected by almotriptan:

"Axert Tablets contain almotriptan malate, a selective 5-hydroxytryptamine 1B/1D (5-HT 1B/1D) receptor agonist. Almotriptan binds with high affinity to 5-HT 1D, 5-HT 1B and 5-HT 1F receptors. Almotriptan has weak affinity for 5-HT 1A and 5-HT 7 receptors, but has no significant affinity or pharmacological activity at 5-HT 2, 5-HT 3, 5-HT 4, 5-HT 6; alpha or beta adrenergic; adenosine (A1, A2); angiotensin (AT 1, AT 2); dopamine (D1, D2); endothelin (ET A, ET B); or tachykinin (NK 1, NK 2, NK 3) binding sites. "

Almotriptan has a half life of 3 to 4 hours, so in theory it will not provide as long a painfree period as naratriptan will. Individuals are all different, of course, so your mileage may vary.

The above description is pretty much identical with those of Zomig, Amerge, and Maxalt, so I can certainly believe that Axert would work as well as them, at least as an abortive.

pinky

Title: Re: stop everything and try axert !!
Post by Ueli on Mar 7^th, 2002, 7:56pm

About Almotriptan (Axert)

What this patient info quoted by Linda T is worth we can see from the "cluster headache is present in an older, predominantly male population" part :-[. Who's gonna volunteer to kick ass of the peeps at axert.com ;D.

Congrats Linda T and Lori, you are learning fast :), and I wont miss the opportunity to repeat:

CH and migraines are different diseases
But as it happens, their one and only crossing point is responding to Triptans (I have written in more detail about this in a recent post).
Therefore, the Triptans are useful for both diseases, but with some differences:
Whereas for migraines, with their slow rise time but long duration, 15 minutes more or less to the onset of action are not so important, for CH it is 15 minutes more or less in hell.

So, for a clusterhead, if an attack has announced itself, or if it has even started, only the fast acting Triptans are of any use: Sumatriptan (Imitrex/Imigran) as injection or nasal spray or Rizatriptan (Maxalt) in the MLT version. This is the use of Triptans as abortives.

In the patient information of about every Triptan there is written: "don't use as a preventative!" But this holds only for migraine patients! (Remember, the pharma industries developed the Triptans for M, they love to rake in our money but do no research on our behalf).

For CH, especially for those with attacks at a fixed time, it makes sense to use Triptans as short term preventatives. If taken an hour before the expected attack even the slower Triptans are acting in time. For this purpose the long lasting Triptans are of most use: Naratriptan (Amerge/Naramig) and Almotriptan (Axert/Almogran). There are more Triptans still in the pipeline (Eletriptan and Frovatriptan), but not much is known about them yet.

To mdsmith: Good for you that one or two Axert tablets a day keep your attacks away ;D. But you have to realize that this only prevents the attacks from surfacing, and I don't think you can break a cycle with this. It would be nice if everybody could have the same success as you with Axert, but sadly, many need much heavier guns.

I myself have good success to keep the nightly attacks at bay, by taking Naratriptan before bedtime.

In a recent research paper from the DMKG (German M. and headache society) there was a comparison between Almotiptan (Axert) and Naratriptan (Amerge): They came out about even in their usefulness, with Amerge having less side effects and Axert being (slightly) cheaper.

For those reading down to this, I wish PFNAD, Ueli ;D

Title: Re: stop everything and try axert !!
Post by Linda T on Mar 8^th, 2002, 8:28am

Dear Lori: I didnt mean to imply that mdsmith shouldn't take the axert just because their is no research to back up its effects on ch. I am glad that it works for him or for anyone for that matter. Damn, "Do whatever it takes" is tattooed on my forehead LOL.

I am just frustrated that whenever there seems to be a new "cure" it takes me back to the migraine pages. I don't have migraines. I wouldn't know a migraine if I fell over it. Currently, I'm eating over 60 imitrex tabs a month. Does a migraine patient eat that many? I don't know, but I suspect not. I'm waiting for my insurance co. to drop my scrip coverage because they must think I'm selling the damn things on the black market. They don't seem to realize that CH needs different treatment and they lump us together with the migrainers.

I'm not so patiently waiting for the day when a link will take me to a web site that says:

NEW PAIN RELIEF MEDICATION SPECIFICALLY FOR CLUSTER HEADACHE!

Guess I'll have a long wait.

Linda T.

Title: Imitrex
Post by Bob_P on Mar 8^th, 2002, 1:57pm

The Imitrex literature does say it is for treating cluster headaches. It is the only triptan so approved.

You may not need to wait as long as you think. OUCH is actively working on Elan Corp. to do cluster testing with Frovatriptan. This stuff supposedly has a half life of 26 hours. This could mean that one pill a day would keep the clusters away.

Title: Re: stop everything and try axert !!
Post by Linda T on Mar 8^th, 2002, 2:14pm

Thanks for the info on frovatriptan.

Hope lives on!

Linda T.

Title: Re: stop everything and try axert !!
Post by Donna on Mar 11^th, 2002, 12:50pm

What's up with the "pink" gender symbol? ;)

Title: Re: stop everything and try axert !!
Post by Donna on Mar 11^th, 2002, 2:02pm

Talking to Bob P. He has the pink symbol.