Migraine

Hi,
I live in the UK and am looking for some advise and experience of other people of flunarizine. I'm going through a really diffiuclt time with my migraines at the moment. I'm under a consultant at the london hospital for neurology and have been on topirimate for a few years and that was controlling things fairly well but things started to deteriorate gradually and now i have been in status migaronosus for about 2months.

When i'm still i'm not too bad but when i move around and do anything active i get pain in the left side of my face and numbness and some blurring in my left eye. I also get a bit disorientated. The consultant has said this is brainstem migraine and has recommended that if topiramare does not control this flunarizine may help but as it is not liscensed in the uk i have little knowledge of it so any info or experiances would be great. i've been off work for two months now so any help would be greatly apprectiated!

Thankyou
Rachel

Welcome Rachel.

I'm not familiar with flunarizine; sometimes drugs have different names in the US. I'll alert our expert guide here to see if she can help you.

You might want to introduce yourself in the Introduction folder so more people have a chance to meet you!

Welcome Rachel!

I personally am not to familiar with Flunarizine, except to know that it is a calcium channel blocker and that it's a canadian drug.

Have you seeked help for the Status Migranious? Anything over 72 hours of a migraine increases your risk of stroke. You should seek medical attention. Are you sure it's migraine and not Medication Overuse Headache?

Here is some info on Flunarizine, mostly side effect info. Is that what you are looking for?

Please let us know if we can help you with anything else.

Welcome to the family! We look forward to getting to know you!

Rachel,

Hello and welcome!

Flunarizine is also known by the brand name Sibelium. As the others have told you, it's a calcium channel blocker. CCBs were developed to treat heart issues and hypertension, but have been found to be good Migraine preventives for some people. It's not available in the US. I'm not sure what you mean by it's "not licensed" in the UK? I don't know that anyone here will have much experience with flunarizine, but many of us take other CCBs. I've been taking verapamil for several years, and it's a great part of my preventive regimen.

"Brain stem Migraine" doesn't really give you a firm diagnosis. There are two kinds of Migraine thought to be more associated with the brain stem than other forms --- basilar-type Migraine and hemiplegic Migraine. In your position, I'd be demanding a full diagnosis. You can find more information on both of these on our Types of Migraines and Headaches page.

Something that most of us didn't know until we started trying to learn more is that neurologists aren't necessarily Migraine specialists, but there ARE true Migraine specialists. You have some excellent specialists in London. You can find more information on them in our directory of Patient Recommended Migraine and Headache Specialists.

Welcome again!

Hiya
Sorry to hear you are not having a great time of it at the moment.
I really wanted to answer your post as not only are we based in the UK too but my young son Tommy has been taking Flunarizine for nearly three years now. This was ever since he had been diagnosed with sporadic hemiplegic migraine. His symptoms include sensations in arm and leg mainly down the right side of his body as well as complete visual loss in right eye. At its worst he has complete paralysis of arms and legs, but so far not face or speech, he does remain fatigued for up to at least a week later and needs help mobilising .
We had tried various meds including topiramate, propanalol, gabapentin etc but it was not until he was diagnosed did we come across flunarizine. It has been very helpful and Tom is on the top dose of 10mgs , he is still experiencing some problems and we are always aware that he could have a crisis point and then we need to re evaluate. There was a time when it was tested and the dose was halved and boy did we know about it !! His symptoms came back ten fold. It was the first ever drug that gave him any relieve of having daily attacks.
As it has already been stated it is a channel blocker and it can apparently take a little time to build up. It is not licensed in Uk for a regular repeat prescription and we have to contact Gt Ormond Street direct. We were told once that had we lived in countries like Germany, we would be able to have receved the drug quicker even up to five years previous ( Tom is 9yrs now). It has been the only drug where we have seen some side effect that was mainly tiredness, but obviously everyone is different.
Don't know if this helped, but good luck and I hope we hear from you again
Regards Sarah m
P.S Is'nt this site great?! Tried everywhere in UK to find a forum like this, we find it such a relief that there are other people out there willing to share with us.

Hello, Rachel, welcome to the forum.

Hi Rachel and welcome to our forum family

Hello, Rachel, and welcome to our forum. Let us know how we can help you.

Hi Rachel, welcome to the forum
I am taking Flunarizine as well.

Hi Rachel,

I just wanted to add my Welcome to the forum I look forward to your future posts

Dar