Posted by Hal (140.247.44.108) on June 21, 1999 at 23:32:41:
In Reply to: Does Periactin work for anyone? posted by David on June 21, 1999 at 03:06:26:
I’d never heard of Periactin before, but the name sort of sounded like the name of an antihistamine (I’ve suffered from hay fever all my life and I’m hip to the way that they name antihistamines). So, I looked it up in a book that I have that’s entitled, Drug Information for the Consumer. It’s published by Consumer Reports and is actually just a paperback version of the United States Pharmacopeia, the encyclopedia of all commercially-manufactured, FDA-approved drugs available in the US, Canada, and some European countries. (You’ve probably noticed the abbreviation “USP ” on medicine lables.) It costs about thirty bucks and has about 2000 pages.
Anyway, according to this book, Periactin *is* an antihistamine, which means that it does nothing for clusters and that your doctor, though better than most, is laboring under the misapprehension that your clusters are the result of some allergy or other. Wrong! Prednisone, as you’ve noticed, is good, but, because of heavy side effects, you can’t take it for too long a time. If you have normal blood pressure or high blood pressure, ask your doctor about Atenolol or Verapamil. These were originally developed for high blood pressure, but for a lot of people, including me, they do a dynamite job of keeping The Demon in its cage.
If you already have low blood pressure, then you could have a problem with these meds, because they could lower your blood pressure to the point that you faint. However, in my opinion, fainting beats the living shit out of six hours of wrestling with The Demon and having no possibility of winning. Of course, you and/or your doctor may not agree me. But, believe me, it’s worth checking out.
Best wishes for a pain-free future