Candesartan

[juliep27]

Has anyone else been prescribed Candesartan as a migraine preventative? If so, what dose do you take? I've been prescribed 16mg a day, but would like to reduce that if possible with it still remaining effective.

[Cally01]

I had this before Topimax I'm sure it was 8mg a day but it didn't help. Maybe i should have tried 16mg? Never had any issue with blood pressure but hoped it done something but it wasn't for me. If 16mg is helping you control episodes / severity of pain then thats a good result 😁

[wcaroljaneuk]

My son was prescribed this and along with flunarizine it has stopped his daily 24/7 migraine, he was as advised to commence at 4mg and so far has not needed to increase the dose.

[MigraineMummy in reply to wcaroljaneuk]

I don't know if you are still on this forum but I saw your post from 3 years ago about how candesartan and flunarizine stopped your son's 24/7 migraines. My daughter has the same and she will be starting candesartan soon. I was wondering if your son continued to improve on these drugs and how he fares 3 years later.

[Niclaw7479]

I've had candesartan prescribed before I think my dose my 16mg. I reduced it and it didn't remain effective... I had to take it with amitriplyine I think..

I hope you can reduce it and it works for you..

Nicola

[123mif]

I've been taking Candesartan for 6 weeks now for Hemiplegic Migraine. I started on 4mg, am now on 8mg and building it up very slowly as Ive reacted badly to other medications in the past. Hope thats helps!

[Phonecase]

Hi , yes I'm also on candesartan only 8mg though. I have been on it for about 4 months & have found it of no benefit at all. May I ask why you are thinking of reducing your dose as I was considering increasing mine .

[juliep27 in reply to Phonecase]

I was taking 16 mg for about 18 months and it, together with a number of lifestyle changes, were very effective to the point that I decided to see if I could do without it altogether. I tapered off the dose over Christmas and New Year, but then had three very severe 3 day migraines in fairly quick succession. I'm pretty sure I know what triggered these, so can avoid those triggers going forward, and I decided that I should start the candesartan again, but I'd like to take less if possible, for no other reason that I'm not keen to take any sort of drugs. I think I will stick at 8 mg for the time being, and if I stay well, not increase the dose any further.

[headingforretirement]

Hi Julie. I'm on 8mg of candesartan and it works really well for me. I've tried a lot of other drugs and this one has been the only one to reduce the number of migraines I have. I have also stopped using triptans completely because they were only making things worse.

Hope this works for you. It took a couple of months for candesartan to start working so give it a go.

[juliep27 in reply to headingforretirement]

Thanks, I think I will see how I get on with 8mg. Is that the only drug you take, or do you use anything else?

[headingforretirement]

That's the only drug I take now but I have also changed the way I eat. I have stopped eating anything with gluten in it and have also tried to really reduce the foods with additives in them.

[jackiesutton62]

Hi I take 16mg at night and 8mg in the morning. Can't say I've noticed a massive difference but I now have fairly high blood pressure so it's a dual treatment. According to my aromatherapy masseur migraine can cause tension and pain around the neck and shoulders which in turn can raise blood pressure so it's all a vicious circle really. Good luck

[seawarrior]

I was prescribed 8 mgs to start off with the instruction to increase the dose to 16 mgs if I tolerated the drug - whatever that means. I started getting little minor but irritating headaches between my migraines so I stopped taking it. I wasn't happy about taking it anyway because I was already on beta-blockers.

[Badknee]

I've fought migraines for 45+ years. My grandmother had them, my mom, my sister, my son as well as a niece and nephew. Think it runs in the family?

My brother-in-law is a physician. He told me about candesartan and I started taking it on January 14, 2014. Since then, I've thrown up ONCE with a headache. Have had maybe 5 sorta bad ones since then... was having them 3-4 days a week. Went to the Diamond Headache Clinic... taken pretty much ***everything*** that's been given for headaches... anti-this and anti-that. Muscle relaxers, brandname stuff - Maxalt, etc., nothing seemed to work for long... except pain pills, which I do NOT want to take.

I don't have high blood pressure. I have to cut the 4 mg pill in half, taking 2 mg per day. This stuff ***CHANGED MY LIFE!!!*** Have mentioned it to others and it helped them. However, it hasn't helped my son. He has taken at least 16 mg per day, and possibly 32, I don't know. Wish it would help him. I'm retired now... I'd take the headaches back if it would help him.

Maybe this information will help someone. The brandname I started on is Atacand... but the generic is WAY much cheaper. BTW, it's helped my sister's headaches.

Hope it helps someone.

[Becky_m]

I might be starting it soon! I'm waiting to hear back from MNC doctor but it might be one I'm going to try. He said my migrainous vertigo is in the hemaplegic migraine group /complex one ...so really interested to hear others experiences of the drug. As in on pitzotifen at the moment I've had significant weight gain so I hope to loose it when I start something else and stop Pitzotifen. Does cancedersartin put weight on? What are the side effects like? Does it cause tiredness? I'm hoping with other drugs I won't get the extreme tiredness I have with pitzotifen - main reason with weight gain why I'm changing (plus it doesn't seem effective now after two years )