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 | | | | Medical Health Encyclopedia | | If you get headaches often, your doctor may prescribe medication to prevent headaches before they occur. Examples of these include:
- Antidepressants, like nortriptyline (Pamelor), amitriptyline (Elavil), fluoxetine (Prozac, Sarafem), sertraline (Zoloft), or paroxetine (Paxil), for tension or migraine headache
- Beta-blockers, like propranolol (Inderal) for frequent migraine headaches
- Calcium channel blockers, like verapamil for frequent migraine headaches
If you are using pain medications more than 2 days a week, you may be suffering from rebound headaches. Rebound headaches are caused by a cycle of using pain medications for short-term relief, followed by the headache pain returning for increasingly longer periods of time despite taking more pain medications.
All types of pain pills (including over-the-counter drugs), muscle relaxants, some decongestants, and caffeine can cause this pattern. If you think this may be a problem for you, talk to your health care provider.
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Call your health care provider if:
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Take the following symptoms seriously. If you cannot see your health care provider immediately, go to the emergency room or call 911:
- Your headache comes on suddenly and is explosive or violent.
- You would describe your headache as "your worst ever", even if you are prone to headaches.
- Your headache is associated with slurred speech, change in vision, problems moving your arms or legs, loss of balance, confusion, or memory loss.
- Your headache gets progressively worse over a 24-hour period.
- Your headache is accompanied by fever, stiff neck, nausea, and vomiting.
- Your headache occurs with a head injury.
- Your headache is severe and localized to one eye with redness in that eye.
- You are over age 50 and your headaches just began, especially with impaired vision and pain while chewing.
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