Dealing With Headaches

Just in case any Canuk readers felt a little left out in the cold after the last post about American headache centers and clinics, you can relax knowing that you have two up on American migraineurs. The first is your national health care for all Canadians and the second is the realease of the new medicine FROVA for migraines. Frova will only be available in Canada.

What Is It?

Frova, short for frovatriptan succinate, is made by Teva Neuroscience Canada in Montreal. It will be available by perscription only in 2.5 mm tablets. It is suppossed to help both migraines with auras and migraines without auras. Some people taking Frovan for Canadian migraines have found that either their migraines symtpms lessened or went away completly.

As you probably guessed from the name, Frova for Canadian migraineurs is int he powerful Triptan family of medicines. Other drugs in this clan include Imitrex (sumatriptan), Maxalt (rizatriptan) and Zomig (zolmitriptan). It is made for migraine pain only — so no taking Frovan for cramps or other aches and pains.

One of the things that sets Frova apart from other Triptans is that the pain relief lasts for about 24 hours after taking it.

Side Effects

Frova is a heavy-duty painkiller that should only be taken IF lesser painkillers like acetaminophen, ibuprofen or aspirin don’t do the job. There is a risk of serious side effects with any Triptan medicine, particularly on your blood vessels. This is another reason why you have to get this stuff on perscription — you have to make sure Frovan isn’t going to clash with other medications or aggravated any blood vessel or heart disease you may have. For even more details than you ever thought possible on side effects of Frova, click here.

Since migraineurs often also have depression, please pay special attention to this warning — You CANNOT take Frova if you are on these SSRI antidepressants (and they’ re the biggies):

• Prozac (fluoexetine. Well, that counts me out of Frova, even if I did live in Canada)
• Paxil (paroxetine)
• Zoloft (sertraline)
• Celexa (citilopram)
• Luvox (fluvoxamine

For God’s sakes, don’t stop taking the anti-depressants. I say that as a person suffering from endogenous recurring depression who would probably be dead now if it weren’t for my Mom’s instincts, the love of a good dog and Prozac.

However, I am not a doctor. PLEASE talk about all of this with your doctor or neurologist before popping any pills, even if they did “fall off the back of a truck”.

It sounds like Frova is apromising new drug for the large percentage of migraineurs who cannot take other medicines and who might not have heart disease or clinical depression. I’m sure that’s good news for the both of you.

(Sorry — couldn’t resist!)