What is the difference between relpax and imitrex

Then they may not have any headaches for months or years later. Cluster headaches usually last only 30 to 45 minutes but can last for a few hours. Relpax may take up to 2 hours to have its full effect, and by that time, your cluster headache may be gone. More studies are needed to determine if Relpax is a safe and effective medication for migraine in children.

Other drugs are available that can treat migraine. Some may be a better fit for you than others. They can tell you about other medications that may work well for you. Note: Some of the drugs listed here are used off-label to treat these specific conditions.

You may wonder how Relpax compares with other medications that are prescribed for similar uses. Here we look at how Relpax and Imitrex are alike and different. Relpax contains the drug eletriptan. Imitrex contains the drug sumatriptan. Relpax is approved to treat migraine with or without aura in adults. You should use this drug only if you have a diagnosis of migraine. Imitrex is also approved to treat migraine with or without aura in adults. In addition, the forms of Imitrex that are given as injections can be used to treat cluster headaches.

Relpax comes as a tablet that you take by mouth when you have migraine. If you take one tablet of Relpax and still have migraine symptoms 2 hours later, you can take a second tablet. Imitrex is available in four forms. One form is a tablet that you take by mouth when you have migraine. Like Relpax, if you still have migraine 2 hours after your first dose of Imitrex, you can take one more dose. These forms may work faster than the tablets, but they may have additional side effects.

The side effects may include a bad taste or burning sensation from the nasal spray and injection site reactions from using a syringe or STATdose pen. Relpax and Imitrex are both a type of drug called a triptan, which is used to treat migraine. Therefore, these medications can cause very similar side effects. Below are examples of these side effects. These lists contain examples of more common side effects that can occur with Relpax, with Imitrex, or with both drugs when taken individually.

These lists contain examples of serious side effects that can occur with Relpax, with Imitrex, or with both drugs when taken individually. The use of Relpax and Imitrex in treating migraine has been directly compared in a clinical study. Researchers compared Relpax with Imitrex and a placebo treatment with no active drug. Here are the percentages of people who had a mild headache or no headache 2 hours after the dose:. Relpax was also more effective than Imitrex at easing nausea and sensitivity to light, and getting people back to their usual activities.

Relpax and Imitrex are both brand-name drugs. There are currently generic forms of both drugs. Brand-name medications usually cost more than generics. According to estimates on GoodRx. But generic Relpax tablets cost significantly more than generic Imitrex tablets.

Like Imitrex above , the drug Maxalt has uses similar to those of Relpax. Both Relpax and Maxalt are medications that are used to treat migraine with or without aura in adults. You should use these drugs only if you have a diagnosis of migraine. Neither Relpax nor Maxalt should be used to prevent migraine or treat cluster headaches. The second form is an orally disintegrating tablet called Maxalt-MLT.

Adults and children should take Maxalt when they have migraine. Adults can repeat the dose 2 hours after their first dose if they still have migraine.

Relpax and Maxalt are both a type of drug called a triptan, which is used to treat migraine. These lists contain examples of more common side effects that can occur with Relpax, with Maxalt, or with both drugs when taken individually.

This list contains examples of serious side effects that can occur with both Relpax and Maxalt when taken individually :. The only condition both Relpax and Maxalt are used to treat is migraine with or without aura in adults. Relpax and Maxalt are both brand-name drugs. Relpax can interact with several other medications. Different interactions can cause different effects. For instance, some interactions can interfere with how well a drug works. Other interactions can increase the number of side effects or make them more severe.

Below is a list of medications that can interact with Relpax. Before taking Relpax, talk with your doctor and pharmacist. Tell them about all prescription, over-the-counter, and other drugs you take. Also tell them about any vitamins, herbs, and supplements you use. Sharing this information can help you avoid potential interactions. If you have questions about drug interactions that may affect you, ask your doctor or pharmacist. Relpax is a type of drug called a triptan.

It works by narrowing blood vessels in your head. Taking more than one triptan medication can increase your risk of side effects, such as heart attack or serotonin syndrome high levels of the chemical serotonin. You should never take Relpax with other triptan medications. This is because triptans may still be in your body for 24 hours after you take your dose.

They can review your treatment plan and suggest the best medication for you. Like Relpax, medications that contain ergot work by narrowing blood vessels in your head. So taking Relpax with an ergot drug can increase your risk for side effects. These side effects include heart attack or stroke.

You should never take Relpax with drugs that contain ergot. This is because ergot drugs may still be in your body for 24 hours after you take your dose. Relpax increases the level of a chemical in your brain called serotonin, which helps regulate your mood. Many anxiety or depression medications may increase the level of serotonin.

Taking Relpax along with other medications that can increase the level of serotonin may cause a dangerous condition called serotonin syndrome. Serotonin syndrome can occur when you have too much serotonin in your body.

Symptoms can include a lack of coordination, feeling agitated or restless, sweating, or a fast heart rate. In addition, you should never take Relpax within 72 hours of taking nefazodone. The benefit of eletriptan 20 mg when compared to sumatriptan 50 mg is greatest around 1. No significant difference was found between eletriptan 20 mg and sumatriptan 50 mg for the fraction of patients that became pain free. No significant effect of encapsulation of sumatriptan was found on the time course of response up to 4 h after treatment when compared to commercial sumatriptan.

This also interferes with normal pain processing between the brainstem and the brain helps to block this electrical transmission , and it helps to block the nausea and vomiting centers in the brainstem.

Triptans help to normalize levels of and decrease the release of a very inflammatory protein released during a migraine called CGRP calcitonin gene related protein. Triptans also inhibit mast cell degranulation in the dural membranes, which also lessens the sterile inflammation which occurs during a migraine.

Most patients tolerate triptans very well, however, many patients have side effects and discontinue them. Just like any medicine, some patients may have more side effects than others. If side effects do occur, there is some variability between the different types of triptans. Potential side effects of the triptans include palpitations or racing heart beat, nausea, tingling, numbness or flushing in the face or extremities, drowsiness, fatigue, dizziness, and tightness or pressure in the chest, neck, or jaw.

With that said, chest pain could still potentially be a sign of heart attack myocardial infarction in patients with vascular risk factors and unknown coronary disease because the triptans do cause some slight vasoconstriction narrowing of arteries.

So if there is already narrowing in an artery, increasing further narrowing could lead to lack of blood flow to the heart with subsequent heart attack in those at risk. Triptans can cause a mild degree of artery constriction narrowing due to its activity at the 5-HT1B receptor as discussed above. This could theoretically occur in narrowed arteries from cholesterol build up, such as in the heart.

Therefore, triptans should not be used in patients who have coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease stroke , peripheral arterial disease, or uncontrolled risk factors for these diseases high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, family history of early heart disease because chest pain for them could truly represent heart attack.

If there is concern for the possibility of underlying cardiovascular disease, a cardiac stress test should be performed prior to triptan prescription. Triptans are also considered to be contraindicated in patients with visual snow, persistent migraine aura, and migrainous stroke infarction due to theoretical concerns of vasoconstriction potentially causing stroke. This contraindication has historically also included hemiplegic migraine and basilar migraine now called migraine with brainstem aura.

When the triptan studies were done previously, they excluded patients with these forms of migraine due to the ongoing vascular theory of migraine at that time. The vascular theory of migraine assumed that vasoconstriction and lack of blood flow was the cause of aura and neurologic features with migraine. So the thinking was that if you cause further vasoconstriction with a triptan, you may cause stroke. However, we now know that these phenomenon are primarily of an electrical basis and not a vascular basis.

Therefore many specialists have gotten more liberal with the use of triptans in patients with hemiplegic or basilar migraine, and there have been a number of case series and case reports of these patients using triptans without any problems.

Imitrex has the benefit of being cheap due to being a generic drug. They are also less harmful to pregnant women and can also be used within a gap of one hour.

The medicine is also available in different forms like pills, nasal spray, patches, etc. The medicine should be taken according to the prescription of a doctor and doses may vary according to the level of your migraine attacks. Imitrex has some common side effects on the body which includes fluctuation of the blood pressure level and it should be checked especially for pregnant women. They can also cause other effects such as redness, unusual taste in the mouth, pain in the head and chest, tightness and others.

The main disadvantage is that they are not good for the treatment of high migraine attacks and cannot be used as a standalone medicine for the treatment. Relpax is the most common drug that is prescribed by doctors for the treatment of migraine attacks. It consists of eletriptan hydrobromide and acts as an anticonvulsant which means it prevents seizures from happening and also treats headaches after it occurs.

Relpax is one of the most common medicines used in the treatment because it also serves the purpose of treating high migraine attacks and can cause the headaches to subside and it is available more widely. It also needs to be taken with the proper prescription by a doctor and can be used after 2 hours from the first intake.