Any body else tried this? Frovatriptan

I have had episodic CH for about 15 years (age 53 now) and have had good results with sumatriptan nasal spray, takes the pain away in 5 to 10 minutes.
Trouble is as you will know, I can only use it twice in 24 hours.
Sometimes I was getting 6 hits a day of different severity so I had to save it to use on the really bad ones.
I have just started a cycle this week and am trying Frovatriptan, it is tablets and they do take about 20 minutes to start taking affect but I do believe they keep the headaches away for longer.
Only had 2 in three days.
Could be they will increase later in the cycle, will keep you posted.

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Hi Curly, and welcome to the site.

I've tried frova and it worked the same for me as every other triptan I took.......rebounds from hell.  I hope you get some much needed relief with yours!

Have you tried o2 yet?

Hi Curly and welcome!!!

I only use Frova when I'm traveling.  Flying really kicks the beast into high gear for me.  Within a half hour of landing I'm rocking and moaning.

Frovatriptan has a 3 hour onset of action.  So I take it 3 hours to my planned arrival time.  It guarantees me a whole day of relief.

A few intractable types have relied on Frova to get a break for a few days but like Jenn said, relying on triptans as a preventative medication can be a road to hell rebound hell.  
Triptans are also very rough on your heart and circulatory system.  There are safer options out there.  Daily use of triptans over a long period of time is an option for when nothing else works.

What else have you tried?

I've had a lot of luck with Verapamil as a preventative med.  It knocks out 90% of my hits.  What gets through the Verapamil I quickly take care of with 100% Oxygen at 25lpm via non-rebreather mask.  See the Oxygen link on the left.  Only if the Oxygen fails do I then turn to my trusty Imitrex Injections.  

Thanks to this regime, I now only use a handful of triptans each cycle.

Verapamil is only one of many prevent choices.  Take a look through this info:

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There are also non-medical options to be found here:

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And even some alternative methods here:

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-Dennis-

No I have never been offered o2.

About the Frovatriptan, in the article above it says "A concern with triptans is that they would work not only on cerebral blood vessels, but also on coronary vessels. Trials indicate that Frova has overcome that concern".
Whether this is true or not I don't know as there is always conflicting views.
As I say, I am not using it as a preventative as such, I am using it at the first sign of attack and thankfully so far I have only needed to take 3 in four days.
Luckily for me they keep it under control in 20 minutes but that could all change.
How bad are these rebound headaches that you mention because I have only noticed that I feel tired and I have like a slight hangover feeling most of the time but nothing too bad.

curly

In my last cycle , I had overused immitrex and was in rebound hell.  My neuro then gave me 8 days worth or Frova , to give me longer pf times while waiting for verap to kick in.

I took the frova about mid morning and it lasted me til next am .  I didn't mix the triptans,  as I stopped using other trex when I started this.   It really helped me get over a bad spot unitl verap kicked in


Kelly

Curly,

November/December last year verapamil didn't seem to work for me any more. Oxygen worked to stop CH attacks, but the CH attacks returned after 1 or 2 hours.

What is better? To use 2 or more imitrex shots a day or to take a triptan as a preventive medication?

I tried frovatriptan as preventive treatment. Adding the 2.5 mg pills to my 106 kg body weight left me pain free for about 8 hours. It took a couple of days to find out about the 8 hours. With 3 pills a day, taken every 8 hours, I was painfree, no side effects noticed. Blood pressure and ECG were O.K.

The doctor asked me to stop taking frovatriptan every now and then. I did so during the weekends. The first weekend I had 8 CH attacks in 12 hours and started taking frovatriptan again. The next time I stopped taking frovatriptan daily CH attacks did not reappear as before and I stopped taking frovatriptan.

Please ask your doctor about frovatriptan side effects and contra-indications etc.

pf wishes,
Friedrich

hey curly

frovatriptan can work pretty well as a semi preventative, but not as an abortive

my hubby who is a chronic sufferer can take them for 3 days in a row (ie one in the morning and one at night) and he can be attack free for the time he is on them

only problem with the frova is your body can build an immunity to them if taken every day!!! which is why he only takes them for 3 days, then gives himself a break.

ask your gp about O2 and i also noticed that you are taking the imi spray and not the injections, is there a reason for that or is that what your doc prescribed

perhaps a call to the OUCH (UK) helpline may be beneficial, their number is 01646 651 979

just leave a short message and contact details (preferrably landline) and someone will call you back

Sandra

Hi, thanks for your input.
In a way I am lucky, although I have had CH for about 15 years I only get them about every 2 years and then always for about 7 weeks.
I have had them at different times of the year, spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Last time was 2 years ago November/December.
I have used the spray in the past because this was the first thing I got prescribed after I got diagnosed and it took the pain away in 5/10 minutes as opposed to an hour of excruciating pain before I got diagnosed so I saw it as a good thing.
The draw back is sometimes I would get more that 2 attacks a day so then I could not take anything else.
At the moment if I take a frovatriptan at the fist sign it doesn't build up too bad and goes after 20/30 minutes and so far hasn't come back sooner than 12 hours.
Having said that I am getting a normal headache all the time.

I would have liked to try the o2 but the doc seemed to ignore me when I mentioned it, maybe he thought my cycles where too short?
Although o2 seems popular I get the impression that it only puts of the attack for a short time?
All the best to you and your hubby.

curlywatts wrote on Mar 30^th, 2009 at 6:34pm:

Although o2 seems popular I get the impression that it only puts of the attack for a short time?

While this is occasionally true the vast majority of my hits do not return.  When they do a 2nd session kills 90% of them for good.  YMMV.

-Dennis-