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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2002 >> Frovatriptan
        
(Message started by: SteveP on Aug 22^nd, 2002, 5:53pm)

Title: Frovatriptan
Post by SteveP on Aug 22^nd, 2002, 5:53pm

Hello everyone,

I am a long time visitor, first time author of a post.

I was diagnosed with cluster headaches 12 years ago and have tried a variety of different things to alleviate the pain. I am an eposodic, but have had CH's every day for the last five months. I had decent success with Verapamil as a preventative, but am now on Depakote. I am currenty using Oxygen, Imitrex, and most recently Frovatriptan (Frova) for abortives. Frova has been the first pill form abortive that I have had succes with as long as I take it at least 30 minutes before my usual CH times. The best part is that Frova seems to be longer lasting than Imitrex and the other abortives, with little or no feelings of exhaustion.

Has anyone else tried Frova?

It is nice to know I'm not alone in this fight!

I hope I'm doing all of this correctly. :)

Steve

Title: Re: Frovatriptan
Post by Bob P on Aug 22^nd, 2002, 6:10pm

Hi Steve,

Frova has a half life of 26 hours compared to 2 or 3 hours for Imitrex.

I was thinking it would make a decent preventative. Just take a tab every 12 hours and no more headaches. One of the ladies tried it last month and wasn't too enthused with the results.

Please keep us posted on how well it works for you. I still have hope for this drug.

Title: Re: Frovatriptan
Post by Samiam on Aug 23^rd, 2002, 2:12pm

Hi, I was put on the Frova last month right after my cycle started I was to take it everyday at the same time to use as a prventive...well it was ok for the first 3 days then it stopped working.....would not even abort mine....I'm not the norm because alot of drugs just don't work nor the o2 so I hope you have better luck then I....I have better luck with DHE and Imitrex nasal and Klonopin.....Good luck.....Sami

Title: Re: Frovatriptan
Post by SteveP on Aug 23^rd, 2002, 2:57pm

Thank you for your replies!

I have heard of DHE, but not really sure what it is or how it's supposed to work.

I have been using Frova in the folowing manner:
I know I'm going to get a headache every morning, so I try to abort it with o2 first, if o2 works then I wait for 30 minutes and take a Frova. If the o2 doesn't work, I have to rely on the Imitrex injections to abort the CH.

I know I'm not supposed to use Imitrex and Frova within the same 24 hour period so based on how the o2 works, I can determine which meds I'll have to use the rest of the day and night. I'm waiting for the morning that I don't have to use any of them.

Hope your meds continue to work for you!

Title: Re: Frovatriptan
Post by Samiam on Aug 23^rd, 2002, 3:45pm

Steve the jury is still out on that theory....I used Frova and imitrex within hr's of one and other....The frova is a very low dose it also takes up to 2 hrs to get into your system so for me if it didn't work as an abortive it wasn't any good for me....I use to take the DHE45 by injections every morning up to 2 a day....that was about 10 yrs ago. Now DHE (Migranol) comes in a nose spray. For me I go back and forth because of the insurance they view these two drug as different so I can get 6 imitrex a month and 8 DHE every 19 days. For me the DHE seems to work faster and better. I fine that if I use the imitrex a couple of days in a row it takes longer to work for me. And neuro fills in the blanks with samples of imitrex so I've been covered. I truly hope this works for you what it did for me was push my clusters all around so it got to be that I never knew when I was going to get hit. DHE didn't do that nor did the imitrex. Amerge also did the same thing (push the cluster's all over the place)....Good luck....Sami