Migraine

I finally reached that point that the migraines are interfering with my life and I'm taking more Imitrex than my insurance will allow. So I got a referral to see a nuerologist. I wondered if I even had migraines since they were nothing like my father had but they are intense, lasting for 72 hours and nothing will treat them but Imitrex. Anyway she gave me the diagnosis and much to my refusal prescribed me Elavil. I told her that I had read way too much about the weight gain but she told me that since I was at a good weight for my height there was no worry. I was so angry because she is no doubt a size 0 and excuse me but I would like to stay at a good weight. I am not going to take the Elavil (25mg) as I'm far to scared. I didn't sleep at all the past two nights. My husband is tired of my headaches and wants me to take it. Has ANYONE took this without the weight gain? I really want relief but I don't want to gain weight. Maybe that's too much to ask?
Thanks!!

Hi and welcome

I can totally relate to your feelings, but one thing to remember is that the side effects listed are only potential ones. Not everyone will suffer from weight gain.

Having said that there are over 100 different meds to prevent Migraine disease, so try not to get discouraged. This article lists all the meds:http://www.helpforheadaches.com/articles/prev-meds.htm

Something else to consider may be a another doctor. If she is not willing to work with you to find a solution (you ARE the consumer ) than it is time to move on. It is imperative to have a good doctor patient relationship where the doctor respects his/her patients opinions and doesn't just poo-poo your weight worries. Here is a list of recommended headache specialists and clinics: http://www.helpforheadaches.com/doctors/migraine-headache-specialists.htm

Please keep us posted on how you are feeling and let us know how we can help you further.

I haven't tried Elavil for the same reason. I am in the process of trying lots of different preventatives and unfortunately, with the exception of Topomax, most of them do list weight gain as a side effect. Nortriptaline has helped me some and I haven't noticed any side effects.

I tried Lyrica for the past 2 weeks and have gained 15 pounds. I'm not happy.

Hey there!
I have been on elavil for almost a year- For the first 4 months I was on it, I gained no weight at all.

Then, I was in a car accident and they added a muscle relaxer- I packed on pounds from that one. But now that I'm off it, the weight's coming off fairly easily. I'm almost positive that the elavil has had no effect on my weight- positively or negitively...

Go ahead and try it if you feel comfortable... From what i've heard anecdotally, it's the larger dosages of elavil that pack on the pounds. Of course that could be wrong- but it's worth a shot.

What Nancy said above is also more than true- there are a LOT of preventatives out there... if you don't feel comfy doing something, speak up. Tell the doctor that you'd prefer to try something else first-- that the weight issue concerns you, and if she doesn't (or won't) work with you as a partner in your treatment... well.. is that really a positive doctor-patient relationship? You're the customer. It's your body. You've got to feel comfortable with your treatment, and the decisions about your health care.

Having said all of that- I like my elavil. Dirt cheap- and works fairly well- with an augmentation of another preventative.

Good luck in your decision!
Jamie

quote:

Originally posted by umbietoo:
I finally reached that point that the migraines are interfering with my life and I'm taking more Imitrex than my insurance will allow. So I got a referral to see a nuerologist. I wondered if I even had migraines since they were nothing like my father had but they are intense, lasting for 72 hours and nothing will treat them but Imitrex. Anyway she gave me the diagnosis and much to my refusal prescribed me Elavil. I told her that I had read way too much about the weight gain but she told me that since I was at a good weight for my height there was no worry. I was so angry because she is no doubt a size 0 and excuse me but I would like to stay at a good weight. I am not going to take the Elavil (25mg) as I'm far to scared. I didn't sleep at all the past two nights. My husband is tired of my headaches and wants me to take it. Has ANYONE took this without the weight gain? I really want relief but I don't want to gain weight. Maybe that's too much to ask?
Thanks!!

It helps me to remember that not everyone has ANY side effects, and nobody gets them all. Did you know that Imitrex lists Headache as a possible side effect.

You can always stop the Elavil and start something else if you start gaining weight. Elavil has been used for migraine prevention for a very long time, and it's got a great track record.

Here's hoping you find your golden egg soon!

Gretchen

Isn't Elavil also called Amitriptilene? If it is, it completely de-stabilized my moods after I had taken it for a year or so. I knew I was in trouble when my husband came in to pick me up from work and I would be in a frothing red rage at him for absolutely no reason other than that he was there. I felt the same way towards customers. I alternated that with some pretty bad depression. No weight gain from it though.

I've been trying elavil for several months now along with topamax (been on that for years). I have had no weight gain at all, in fact, I have lost weight. So don't be afraid to try it, if you start to gain weight, time to try something else! Unfortunately for me, it really isn't helping, other than I'm sleeping alot better...

Hi FoxyLoo. Welcome to MyMigraineConnection.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. That is exactly what is so wonderful about this forum, people willing to come and talk about their different trials and tribulations with various medications, doctors and clincis just to name a few.

If elavil is not working don't hesitate to talk to your doctor about a different preventive. Your post is very timely. Teri Robert, patient advocate and author just posted her new podcast about this topic. You can find it here:The Most Frequently Asked Migraine Question

We look forward to hearing more from you. Again welcome!

Wow - thanks so much for all the responses. It's so nice to come and talk. I haven't started the elavil yet but probably will, just have to jump in and not be so scared. I want to wait it out and see if going off my Yasmin BCP might help. I had to go back on BC even though my husband had vasectomy as I developed acne for the first time in my life at the age of 32. I tried every drug/topical the dermatologist wanted to try only to come up with either Accutane or going back on the pill. I am hoping now that I'm almost 40 the acne won't come back (fingers crossed tight). I'm also taking Migralief which is supposed to contain the right amount of magnesium/feverfew and something else. I hope it's not snake-oil but I have my suspisions. So far I've been five days without a migraine so I'm pretty happy about that. Again, just want to say thank you so much for all the responses.

Hi Umbietoo,

I have been on elavil for about 2 years now this time around. I started out at 25 mg at night. Since that didn't help my PCP put me on 50 mg. Then my Neurologist put me on 75 mg and back in Oct it was raised to 100mg per night. I have not gained any weight at all but i was warned that it will increase your appitite, which it did and I was able to not gain weight by watching what I ate. My Neurologist told me that a pill doesn't contain 30lbs or whatever gain you are thinking of. It worked for me up until this past january and I am now cycling off of it, which if 25 mg works for you there may be no need if you stop taking, but because it is a tricyclic anti-depressant (which for some reason work for migraines) you cannot abrubtly stop taking it.

I have started taking Depakote to replace it at 250 mg 2x a day in addition to atenolol, a beta-blocker. I agree with Nancyhost, find a new doctor, one that is willing to work with you and is sympathetic. Migraine disease is hard to control at times and you need a Doctor that you are comfortable with and will HELP you!

Try other abortives besides the triptans. In my case the are contraindicated for my types of migraines, I have migraines with aura's and Midrin works great for a lot of them and the ones they don't work for I have to unfortunately use percocet and I DON"T like the side effects of that, but eventually it works!
Good Luck and I hope you find something that works. let us (is that the correct term for a forum??) know what happens!

Stacie

So bizarre--I too recently got off of Yaz (previously was on Yasmine) to see if it would affect my migraines. I get them 4 times a week. The only thing that helps is IMITREX. My new neurologist just recommended I take 250 mg of Depakote--however I am afraid of the weight gain side effect. What to do?

LexB,

Hello and welcome! I guess I have a couple of comments on this...

• Such side effects are POTENTIAL side effects. The majority of patients do NOT experience them. Be careful of assuming that you'll have a problem. Our minds are so powerful that they can make the body experience effects. This is seen in all clinical trials when people who are given the "fake" drug experience the effects they expect to experience with the REAL drug.
  
• If a doctor ever refused to discuss the options with me, they'd be fired so fast they wouldn't know what happened to them. Your doctor is NOT ultimately in charge of your healthcare. YOU are. My doctors discuss the options with me, and we make treatment decisions together. They don't make decisions FOR me; they make them WITH me.

welcome again!

quote:

Originally posted by LexB:
So bizarre--I too recently got off of Yaz (previously was on Yasmine) to see if it would affect my migraines. I get them 4 times a week. The only thing that helps is IMITREX. My new neurologist just recommended I take 250 mg of Depakote--however I am afraid of the weight gain side effect. What to do?

LexB,

My advice is to try the Depakote and see how it works. I'm now on a very small dose, 125 mg once a day, and I can't believe how much better I feel! I, too was having at least four migraines week, and now, well, since I've been on the depakote - three weeks, only one migraine. I'm still taking topamax and elavil, but with the addition of the depakote, what a difference. I think that any weight gain would be because I feel so good, I would want to eat more! So I am being very careful with I eat, and so far, no issues.

My neurologist just put me on nortryptaline, a close realative of elavil... apparently it has fewer side effects than elavil... it will also depend on what dose you get. I am only going to take 30-50 mg-- normal dose is 100mg or so.

Not everyone will gain weight, as others have said. You can try it & if you notice a change, ask your doctor to switch you to nortryptaline instead. As someone else stated, the drug doesn't contain the extra 30 lbs, so be mindful of your appetite & get some exercise to counter any increase in appetite you might get as a side effect. you may not even get that as a side effect...

now the question is... do you want to be headache free or not?

EVERYBODY (on this thread, that is):

I was just about to post asking about elavil when I did a search and found this thread. Thank you all muchly for putting your experiences here.
I was afraid of the weight gain issue but now I think I'll try it out. My DR gave me a small scrip of 10mg to just 'test it out' since I've been so reluctant. He wants to get my # of Migraines down from 6-10 a month (umm, yeah, so do I?)....