Or tizanidine (generic name)?  Supposed to be a muscle relaxer, anti spasmotic and has recently been used successfully for pain??

Cat

I've had it, and it's pretty good at relaxing the arthritic spasms in my back, but I can say for sure it's had no effect on CH what-so-ever. 

Yeah. I was on it, reduced the severity of my attacks pretty well.

My GP didn't want to keep me on it AND Baclofen at the same time, and the Baclofen cut the amount I had per day in half. It was less expensive, so I chose it.

Day before yesterday I spoke with my headache specialist, and she's given me a script of it and told me to figure out what dose works for me. So I'm gonna taper off Baclofen, start the Zanaflex and see how things go.

I'll let you know how I do on it if you'd like.

PFDAN
Mystina

Thanks, let me know.  I have to taper up so I don't expect anything anytime soon.

Oh well, one more funky name to put on the list hehe.

Cat

keep us updated

Hey Cat,

Did they give you the Zanaflex for CH?  I wasn't aware that it was used for that much!  Just a few weeks ago, I was given the Zanaflex to take 4mg three times a day for 2 weeks then as needed to try to break a bad migraine cycle.  The CH has been pretty well-controlled with my neurostim, so fortunately it's been more migraine issues I've been having rather than CH of late.  I did take the zanaflex as directed for 2 weeks, but then I felt like it wasn't really doing that much, so I quit taking it.  I've tried it in the past as well - but then, my headaches tend not to respond to many meds, which is why I got the nerve stim in the first place!

How do you find the Zanaflex is working?  Any appreciable difference?

Hugz,
Carrie :)

Carrie, the neuro gave it to me for migraines.  He has me taking 2 mg 4x/day but ramping up.

So far it hasn't done a whole lot of anything.  Hell, it doesn't even make me sleepy, which when I get a miserable migraine, sleep is what I want.  He didn't know if it would help the CH as a preventative or not, but figured after seeing the 50+ meds as of 2004 that nothing could hurt *sigh*.

We are awaiting approval for me to see Dr. Alan Finkel in Chapel Hill, Prof. Goadsby recommended him and my local neuro (who has openly admitted he knows nothing about headaches) knows of him and is writing a letter to try and get things moving faster.

With the weather as bad as it's been here the last few days, my head is in normal misery mode.  At least the CHs are minor for the most part as long as I am smart enough to hit O2 at first twinge.

I'm about ready to start buying illegal imitrex LOL.

I'll keep everyone posted.

Cat

Okay so I won't be able to report for a while if it works well on it's own or not.

Tapering off the baclofen lead to me getting hit so hard that I had to go back on it immidiately.

Since my Papa is having surgery and won't be able to drive for a week, I'm going to wait until AFTER he's recovered to try again.

I'll update when I'm able to add something to this. Hope this gives you some relief, Cat. Also, there's supposedly a difference in the capsules, and in the plain tablet pills. I don't know why, but I had the first doctor who tried me on it tell me to ONLY get the capsules.

I honestly can't tell a difference between the two. Tablet, or capsule both reduce the pain when I do get hit. But I'm pretty sensitive to meds so it doesn't take a lot / being on it long to get the job done.


PFDAN
Mystina

I tried both back in the days to try to prevent ch and it didn't help me.  I am on both now for my lower back pain.  Plus a tens unit.  Yuk.  I am desperate and will do anything right now tho for the back pain to stop.