It’s time to take a look at what’s new with Namenda migraine treatment. Namenda is actually just one brand name for memantine. It’s also sold as Axura, Akatinol, Ebixa and Memox.
Namenda is commonly used for Alzheimer patients, but is being tested for a number of other neurological disorders.
Technically known as a moderate affinity NMDA-receptor antagonist. In Alzheimer patients, excessive glutamate inhibits the normal sending of messages in the body. This drug blocks the effects of the excessive glutamate.
Namenda is being investigated for migraine, chronic tension-type headache, and various kinds of pain.
In one sense the news so far hasn’t been overwhelming. However, memantine may bring improvement to patients that are having difficulty finding other medications that work for them (Bigal, Rapoport, Sheftell, Tepper, Tepper 2008).
In Namenda treatment for migraine, small studies have shown some improvement in migraine patients who have significant disability and a significant number of attacks each month. The dosage is usually 10-20mg per day. Some studies saw over a 50% reduction in attacks (Krusz, Cammarata, 2005).
Namenda migraine treatment shows promise, but it’s still lacking the large, double blind trials that can really show us how well it works (and who it works best for).
I should also mention that there is some indication that Namenda may help with chronic tension-type headache. The results haven’t been as promising as with Namenda migraine treatments, but patients have seen a reduction in pain intensity, and some have seen a reduction in attacks (Lindelof, Bendtesn 2009)
Again, these are very small studies. But researchers are hopeful that memantine will be a good addition to migraine treatment, especially migraine that has been harder to treat in certain people. Since tension-type headache and cognitive problems often go along with migraine, there may be certain patients that see significant improvement with Namenda.
An interesting side note on the study of memantine is new light on the differences between men and women when it comes to migraine. Read more about Namenda, Migraine and cortical spreading depression
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This article is interesting because I have migraines (24/7 without meds) and take Namenda 5mg for ms related memory loss.
I see that the study is using 10-20mg. Taking Namenda 5mg does not help my migraines and taking a higher dose causes balance problems.
I will be watching for news about this study. If it is a huge success, I may want to revisit my Namenda treatment options with my ms doctor.
Hey, James; I have been on Namenda for three years with significant results. Now I’m fighting with my insurance company to keep the medication, (for the past year) due to “off-label” and non marketed use. It amazes me how the insurance industry has such a hold over my physician’s prescribing the medication, and it actually keeping migraine at bay.
The way my doc looks at it; “I guess they prefer to pay many thousands of dollars with you in a hospital, than to keep you out of the hospital on a medication that works. They will lose. We will keep trying.”
I am fortunate to have a wonderful doctor who is willing to fight for me, who has seen me suffer through horrible migraine, and will not give up. Yet it still kills me how the insurance industry struggles to keep us down. We have been going at this for over a year!
Due to many medication allergies and failures, I’m pretty limited to what I can take. I’ve tried several other preventatives, but this has by far been the most significant to my regimen.
Thanks for your post.
Hi, James!
Thought I would share my Namenda experience, too. I took it for just about six months last year, and although the side effects were less severe or bothersome than other preventives I’ve tried, I still didn’t like it much.
However, it did cut the number of migraine attacks I was having by about one-half, which was enough to seemingly break my chronic attack cycle from taking too many abortive drugs. I wish I could say that it helped my memory or cognitive abilities, but not so.
I’m on no preventives now (I do take supplements and have made lots of lifestyle changes) and still trying to control all factors enough to have less than 8 Imitrex treatment days per month. After nearly 40 years, just maybe I have learned enough to control somewhat and better manage my migraines. OR — I am old enough and hormone-changed enough that it would be happening anyway!!!
In any case, for me Namenda was successful to a specific extent and purpose. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing your experiences. Patricia, this may be something for you to revisit. But for all of us I hope this will continue to shed more light on exactly what is happening in a migraine attack – that may lead to new and better treatments.
Deborah, it is too bad that it has to be such a fight with the insurance companies! Sometimes it seems like these big organizations want to tell us what’s best for us. Trouble is, migraine is still such an individual disease.
Betsy, thanks for sharing your experiences too. It’s interesting to hear someone who has had some success breaking the “chronic cycle” with Namenda migraine treatment. I hope others can share their stories too.
I am reporting back after visiting my ms doctor. She has taken me off Namenda as she recently read Namenda can actually make memory worse for ms patients. She put me on Aricept instead.
Hmmm… interesting to hear — I didn’t feel it helped my memory or cognitive abilities, either, and felt like I had sort of a foggy brain all the time on Namenda, even though that’s not supposed to happen.
I hope the Aricept works for you, Patricia, and are you taking it for memory or migraine, or both?
I was hoping to continue taking Namenda for two reasons (migraine and memory) but my doctor took me off Namenda. Namenda did cause me to feel like I was living inside a wobby fish bowl so I’m glad to be rid of that feeling.
Out of curiosity I tried to find the article my doctor found in the Neurology magazine. I was unable to access the magazine but in the process I uncovered other unsettling news. Medicines for headache pain (Aleve and others) can cause memory loss.