Tag: side effects

Chronic Migraine, Diet, Mental Health

Checking In

Kerrie Smyres

Worried emails come in whenever I’m quiet for long, so here’s a brief update. My mood is pretty good and my migraines have been a bit better (though I have an ugly one right now). Wellbutrin is still making me dizzy when I work on the computer, so I’m not writing much. I’ve chugged a Tolerex with breakfast the last two days, which seems to have kept the dizziness at bay. My fingers are crossed that I’ll be fully functional again soon.

I’m now 38 and had a lovely, low-migraine birthday (though Hart had a migraine that day!). I decided to indulge in dinner out and homemade yellow cake with buttercream frosting. A migraine followed, but it was mild and worth it.

If you’re looking for new writing from me, Migraine.com is a good place to check. They have a backlog of articles from me that they publish as needed and usually post one new one from me each week. Here are some recently published posts:

I apologize for letting your comments languish; I hope to reply this week. And I hope to get at least one new post up this week. I hope you’re doing as well as possible!

 

 

 

 

Meds & Supplements, Mental Health

Wellbutrin Side Effects

Kerrie Smyres

Dizziness is one of Wellbutrin’s most well-known side effects, one with which I’ve become intimately familiar. Since I know I need an antidepressant right now and refuse to take any with sexual side effects, I’ve become experienced in managing Wellbutrin side effects. In addition to dizziness, I’ve had some trouble with insomnia. This information stems from dealing with those problems, but it may be helpful for other side effects, as well.

The main points:

  • Try different release types
  • Take the meds with food
  • Try different ways of taking different dosages (example: for 300 mg, take 200 in the morning and 100 in the afternoon or vice versa)
  • Try generics from different manufacturers
  • Try the name brand drug, if possible

Wellbutrin (generic: bupropion) comes in regular release, sustained release (SR) and extended release (XL). I started on 200 mg of the generic sustained release. My diet is heavily restricted, so I don’t eat many calories at once and eat few carbohydrates, both of which seem to make me more susceptible to dizziness. I could manage as long as I consumed 800 calories before my first dose and took the second dose six hours later.

Then I increased my dose to 300 mg a day, which added insomnia to the dizziness. If I took 200 mg in the morning, I got dizzy and stayed that way all day. Taking 200 mg in the afternoon caused less dizziness, but made it difficult for me to fall asleep and stay asleep.

So I switched to 300 mg of the generic extended release, taken in two 150 mg tablets with breakfast. I still had a little bit of dizziness, but it was pretty mild, and no trouble with sleep. Then I started taking the 300 mg in a single tablet and wound up with intense dizziness that even kicked up when I rolled over in bed.

The question is whether I did better with two 150 mg tablets because there were two pills or because they are manufactured by a different company than the 300 mg tabs. I’m guessing the latter since generic drugs have the same active ingredient as name brand drugs, but the other ingredients may differ and, thus, may have different side effects.

Which leads to what will be my next experiment — taking two 150 mg tablets of Wellbutrin XL, the brand name extended release version. If my insurance company approves it, I’ll let you know how the experiment goes.

(And now you know why my posts have been sporadic and I’ve been slow to respond to email and comments the last few months. Computer time is the first thing to go when I’m dizzy. Today it feels manageable; we’ll see if that lasts.)

Update: I got the dizziness under control a few ways:

  1. I always take it with food, usually about 30 minutes after eating.
  2. I split the dose, one with breakfast and two around 3p. (It can cause insomnia, so you might need to take it earlier.)
  3. When those two things stopped being sufficient, I switched to name brand Wellbutrin XL (I was on generic XL before that).

If name brand Wellbutrin isn’t an option (insurance companies often don’t cover it), you could try generic bupropion from a different manufacturer. Ingredients vary enough from one manufacturer to the next that switching to another generic can do the trick. The downside is that you may have to try generics from multiple companies to find one that doesn’t have side effects for you. To switch, find out which company makes the bupropion that’s causing your dizziness (it should be on the bottle or your pharmacist can tell you). Then ask your pharmacist if they stock another brand or are able to order a different brand for you. This usually is no problem, but there’s a chance you’ll need to try a different pharmacy.

Meds & Supplements, Mental Health, Symptoms

Sensitivity to Drug Side Effects Increased by Migraine Attack

Kerrie Smyres

Nine days of dizziness following four days of migraine. That’s what I’ve been up to these last two weeks.

The migraines made sense. We had rainstorms that week and I’d blown off my diet a couple times. The dizziness, however, was surprising. Wellbutrin has been to blame every time I’ve been dizzy in the last 16 months, but it didn’t make sense. I haven’t changed my dose in a few months months. I’d eaten plenty before taking it each time and hadn’t missed a dose. Maybe I accidentally took too much one day? I skipped a dose intentionally, took it at different times, took 300 mg instead of 450 mg. When the dizziness did lessen, the reprieve never lasted long. It was as if the migraine attack had made me more sensitive to Wellbutrin’s side effects.

It seemed unlikely that one migraine attack would change how I reacted to medication I’ve been on for more than a year, but my headache specialist told me he’s seen it happen with other patients. As he put it, the brain you have after a migraine attacks is not the same brain as you had before it. Any medication that acts on the central nervous system, like antidepressants, could interact with this new brain in a different way than before, causing an increase in side effects. My dose hadn’t changed, my brain had.

The changes to your brain after an attack are not permanent, so please don’t let this scare you. It’s more like a storm with high winds came through and there’s still dirt and debris in the street. The street sweeper will get to it eventually, but it may take some time. (I live in a place with haboobs and dramatic thunderstorms. You can liken it to a snowstorm if that’s more familiar.)

I’ve been taking 300 mg of Wellbutrin for the last week. Today I can look at the computer without feeling like my head is melting as if in a psychedelic video, but I still have to be careful to minimize the chance of side effects whenever I take a dose. My fingers are crossed that this part of the change to my brain lasts and that I can keep the depression at bay on this lower dose.

My naturopath/therapist believes that my depression is directly tied to migraine attacks. Since I started seeing her almost two years ago, every increase in depression has followed a long migraine attack that didn’t respond to acute medications. This fits with my headache specialist’s explanation. I haven’t waited to see if the depression abates without medication, but I wonder if it would. Not enough to find out, but I will ponder it.

My fingers are crossed that I have the internal mess from this latest storm cleaned up. Now it’s time to attend to everything I haven’t been able to attend to while weathering it. I’m going to read and approve a slew of comments now, but it will take me a while to respond to all of them.

Chronic Migraine, Coping, Treatment

Cyproheptadine for Migraine Prevention

Kerrie Smyres

The entire time I’ve been on cyproheptadine (about seven weeks), I’ve alternated between wanting to gush to you about it and feeling an immense need to keep quiet, lest I put its effect in jeopardy. I’m more superstitious about this medication and its efficacy than a starting pitcher in the seventh game of the World Series. I fret over the strangest things, afraid that any change in my symptoms or dose could mean an end to the relief.

Cyproheptadine is not new or novel; in fact, the brand name version, Periactin, is no longer made. It is an old antihistamine often used to children with migraine. I tried it a couple years ago and, although it is known for causing drowsiness and is sometimes used as a sleep aid, it made me jittery and unable to sleep. That first trial lasted only a couple days. This past summer I was so fatigued (turns out I was deficient in vitamins D and B12) that I decided maybe the side effects I experienced on cyproheptadine the first time would be welcome.

This time I had the more typical side effects of drowsiness and increased appetite, but also had an immediate reduction in the severity of migraine pain. The side effects were the strongest the first week I started the medication. I’ve increased the dose twice and each time have noticed the side effects for two or three days before they disappear. So far, I’m two pounds heavier than when I started.

Cyproheptadine’s maximum dose is 36 mg; I’m on 12, where I plan to stay for at least another month to see if I get any further benefit the longer I’m on the dose. For now, I’m enjoying many days where the pain ranges between a level 2 and 4. Only twice in the last month has the pain reached level 6 and I’ve even had a couple hours at level 1. At least, I think it was — I have no memory of what level 1 feels like.

This is the land of rainbows and unicorns!

Coping, Meds & Supplements, Treatment

Migraine Preventives & Weight Gain

Kerrie Smyres

The threat of weight gain as a side effect of migraine preventive is a major concern for many migraineurs. Though I’ve been sympathetic to their worries, I never really understood. If something reduces the migraine severity and/or frequency, I thought I’d be willing to gain even 70 pounds. Then I started gaining weight on cyproheptadine and was rewarded with a massive infusion of empathy. Read about it in The Emotional Turbulence of Gaining Weight on a Migraine Preventive on Migraine.com.

Upon finishing that post a few weeks ago, I wasn’t sure if the weight gain was worth the trade off. Then I asked this hypothetical question: Would I stop cyproheptadine tomorrow if it meant I’d lose the weight within a week and my daily pain would return to a level 7? No freaking way! Ten or 20 pounds is an absolutely fair price to pay for level 5 pain.

Avoiding and Coping With Migraine Medication-Related Weight Gain by Diana Lee has some excellent tips if you’re struggling with weight gain from a preventive or inactivity due to migraine.