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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2005 >> Olanzapine aka Zyprexa
        
(Message started by: Bob P on Mar 25^th, 2005, 11:00am)

Title: Olanzapine aka Zyprexa
Post by Bob P on Mar 25^th, 2005, 11:00am

I noticed in the article that has been posted recently, Update on therapies for cluster headache by Todd Rozen, that he mentions good success with olanzapine for those who cannot take triptans. The test was back in 2001 so I e-mailed him to find out if any further testing had been done. He said that he still is having good success using it with patients who can't use triptans.

Have any of you had any experience with it?

Title: Re: Olanzapine aka Zyprexa
Post by Mr. Happy on Mar 25^th, 2005, 11:38am

Ol' Bob Johnson from NC has been touting the joys of Zyprexa for a while now. Ask him.

Title: Re: Olanzapine aka Zyprexa
Post by Bob P on Mar 25^th, 2005, 12:14pm

Well crap! Got an auto-reply that he is moving to Deleware and his PC is out of service!

Thanks anyway Hap.

Title: Re: Olanzapine aka Zyprexa
Post by nani on Mar 25^th, 2005, 12:15pm

There are at least a couple of threads on it, Bob. Try a "search"...although I can never get the darn thing to work. :(

Title: Re: Olanzapine aka Zyprexa
Post by Karla on Mar 25^th, 2005, 12:34pm

I have taken 4 antiphycotics and none have helped my ch.

Title: Re: Olanzapine aka Zyprexa
Post by Bob P on Mar 25^th, 2005, 12:36pm

You guys were right. Old Bob has posted doc Rozen's article on olanzapine about a dozen times!

Title: Re: Olanzapine aka Zyprexa
Post by pattik on Mar 25^th, 2005, 1:53pm

Bob, I am also interested in trying this in the future. So I hope you can find someone here who has actually used it. I will do some searching too. Good luck. Pat

Title: Re: Olanzapine aka Zyprexa
Post by Bob P on Mar 25^th, 2005, 2:02pm

Pat,
I'm waiting to hear back from doc Rozen on whether it has had any success as a preventative.

He said that as an abortive it works within 20 minutes for most patients. Strong side effect is sleepiness which he says most patients prefer - feeling more relaxed during a hit.

I'll let you know when I hear from him.

Title: Re: Olanzapine aka Zyprexa
Post by pattik on Mar 25^th, 2005, 2:08pm

Bob, Thanks....I will hopefully only need an abortive in the future, so I'm interested in a non-Imitrex alternative. Thanks again. pk

Title: Re: Olanzapine aka Zyprexa
Post by Bob P on Mar 25^th, 2005, 5:04pm

Pat, here is what I got out of Rozen:

Hello
Since that article I have continued to use olanzapine as a prn treatment especially for individuals who cannot take triptans and do not get benefit from oxygen. I find it has worked well in almost all cluster patients who have taken it to abort their headaches. It will though cause sedation.
Alot of patients like it because it normally will start to alleviate or comepletely alleviate the pain within 20 minutes and take away the agitation that occurs along with their attacks. Certainly check with your physician if olanzapine is safe with your cardiac block.

good luck

todd rozen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I do use it as an abortive but in some it make act as a preventive but not my first choice. I dose it as I do in the article. You can use it more than one time per day. You should take at the onset of an attack.
todd rozen

Title: Re: Olanzapine aka Zyprexa
Post by pattik on Mar 25^th, 2005, 6:18pm

Thanks, Bob. With my headaches usually showing up at 5:00AM, I'm not sure I want to deal with the sedation, but I'm still going to try it next time. As much as I love the results of Imitrex, it's pretty pricey for me. Thanks again. Pat

Title: Re: Olanzapine aka Zyprexa
Post by Lizzie2 on Mar 28^th, 2005, 12:54am

Bob...

I used to use zyprexa as an abortive for some time before it lost its effectiveness. However, I used it before I ever had CH...back when I was solely dealing with chronic daily migraine - to treat the flare ups. I did not have any triptans...only Zyprexa and DHE for awhile.

I used to use 5mg, and it did make me exhausted. I had to sleep for the rest of the day when I would use it. We dropped down to 2.5mg, but it wasn't worth squat as far as helping. Then sometimes I bumped up to 10mg, but that was so sedating...I just slept all the time and put on a lot of weight.

I have used it as a preventative short term, but I didn't like it. It makes my mouth feel like cotton and it makes me incredibly sleepy.

While they say these effects wear off, they never did for me.

I went from that to thorazine.....an even more killer antipsychotic for me, but I used it for a long time.

I know my doc had once put me on Geodon as a preventative...I tried it for 2 weeks, but I was so tired that I literally slept all the time outside of class. It was killing my grades and my life, so I had to come off it.

The antipsychotics definitely have their role in headache treatment, but they often leave people feeling very very tired and drained. I can't use them anymore on any regular basis because if I do, they completely wipe me out. If I take it at 10am for a nasty attack, then I have to take off the rest of the day and just sleep.

Let me know if you want more anecdotal experience!

Lizzie :)

Title: Re: Olanzapine aka Zyprexa
Post by pattik on Mar 28^th, 2005, 9:15am

Thanks, Lizzie. This is really food for thought for me. I don't think I could handle the sedating effects very well either, so this may not be a good solution as an abortive. Appreciate your imput on this. Pat