Appreciate any insight on the effects of verapamil side effects as a preventative.  I have been on it for about three weeks, and been off of the Pred taper for about a week.  Seems to be helping - have had only four hits since starting, all easily aborted by a shot.  Dosage level right now is 320 mg/day -80/160/80 intervals. 

Only side effect I have noticed is I seem to get a shadow headache - almost feels like a CH is coming, but slightly different.  I know one of the side effects of Verapamil is headaches and was wondering if that could be a sign my dosage is a bit high?  Anyone have a similar experience?

Thanks in Advance

My verapamil side effects have personally all been related to the usual (non-CH related) side effects that any person taking this drug might experience.

That is, I found that I was overly-sensitive to the common SA of leg swelling and heart palpitations.  I found that it did control my daily CH reasonably well, but the moment I went over a moderate daily dose, I got slammed with hugely-swollen ankles and heart palps.  Ultimately, my doctor and I decided that I'm just too sensitive to this drug.

As for affecting the course of my CH, the jury is still out.

Hi, I have been on Verap 320mg for a long time and my main side effects are tiredness. I am feeling tired the whole day which get's very difficult if you need to keep up with work etc. The shadowing I had for a long time as well and was not a real problem.
I am up to 720mg and not sure what that will bring me as side effects. Have to wait until the prednisone taper is finished which is still 10 days. I have episodic cluster and I allways build off all meds after a cluster period.

The side effect of headache, which you mention about Verap, is--my guess--referring to the generic headache rather than to Cluster. The source of the two types are different and so the side effects, measured during clinical trials of Verap are not Cluster specific.

Suspect that you may benefit from an increase in your dose. Discuss with the doc.

One other common side effect is that it can lead to constipation (I'm sure there is some concrete dust in the tablets).

Mike NZ wrote on Jul 12^th, 2012 at 6:06pm:

One other common side effect is that it can lead to constipation (I'm sure there is some concrete dust in the tablets).

;D ;D ;D

TJMBeav - I see from your profile that you are a male. 

There is one other unfortunate side effect from high doses of Verapamil with which you will probably become familiar...   :'(

Remember that not all side effects affect everyone, so you may get all, some or none of them.

TJMBeav wrote on Jul 11^th, 2012 at 6:16pm:

...verapamil...  I have been on it for about three weeks, and been off of the Pred taper for about a week.  Seems to be helping - have had only four hits since starting, all easily aborted by a shot.  Dosage level right now is 320 mg/day -80/160/80 intervals.  Only side effect I have noticed is I seem to get a shadow headache - almost feels like a CH is coming, but slightly different.  I know one of the side effects of Verapamil is headaches and...

 


Quote:

Anyone have a similar experience?

Getting hits seldom and shadows has usually meant to me that the verapamil and clusters are in battle and the verapamil is giving a little ground to the clusters.  In this event, with my doctor's approval, I have slightly upped the verapamil to equalize the combat outcome, which would be a step to about 360-400mg for you. 



Quote:

...was wondering if that could be a sign my dosage is a bit high?

Verapamil at 320mg daily is not a high dosage for containing clusters.  While side effects there may be, the shadow headaches, if it is one-sided, may be the attempt of a hit trying to breakthrough, but muted. 

As described, it's possible the shadows may not be a side effect yet.  I am mirroring Bob's reply, in that a step up in verap might help if you consult your doc.  Otherwise, without more info, whether the headaches are generic type or a cluster shadow is questionable, but at 320mg and recently off a pred taper, I'd suspect shadows.

Thanks for the responses.  Been almost a week without a real hit - and the other headaches are not as numerous.  They really aren't shadows as they seem to be more centered and not as one sided as a normal CH.  Anyway - I will stay the course (which is still 80mg per day higher than my original script) and hope for the best.

As for that other potential "problem" - I guess I am lucky, as it seems to be having the opposite effect  :D

Great things are working for you.     :)

Verapamil is my wonder drug.  I take the ER form at 120 daily.  Two weeks after I first started taking it, I had no headaches, only shadows, and that is what you could possibly be experiencing.  This winter they started me on 180 daily because they returned, and it was a bad cycle.  I was having low blood pressure though; so, had to go back down to 120.  The only side effects I noticed were the low blood pressure (seeing lights that looked like little bugs swarming out of the side of my eyes.  I even swatted at them once, lol) and, of course, terrible constipation.  Other than that, no problems with the medication.  Just give it a little while, and if you still feel like the headaches are coming from the verapamil, talk to your doctor about it.  Sometimes medicines will do things like that too when you first start taking them but then will go away in a couple weeks or so.