Antibiotics and migraine

[Chleo11]

Hi everyone. I've had a bad throat infection and was given antibiotics (the generic penicillin type). I've had a shocking migraine since starting taking the antibiotics (3 days ago). No sleep and have now lost appetite. Triptan didn't do anything at all. I've had the experience previously of getting headaches with antibiotics but never on that scale. Does anyone has had this experience and is there a type/brand of antibiotics better than the other? I'm so desperate that I am considering stopping the treatment (I know, never supposed to do that!!!). On the positive side, my throat is back to normal. Thank you for you help!

[troy04]

I have not experienced this but if your throat is better you can stop antibiotics. I know it is against the long standing general advice but there are many scientists who argue that the advice to always finish a course of antibiotics is not backed up by evidence. In this particular case, the risk is far too low for the infection to return.

I am not sure stopping antibiotics would improve it but let's hope so. Only thing I can say is, if I get bad cold or flu, my migraine often gets very bad even if I am not taking antibiotics.

[Loulou1922 in reply to troy04]

I think it’s possible the infection could also be causing a change in body temperature as that always gives me a monster migraine attack …

[Chleo11 in reply to Loulou1922]

Hi Loulou. I think that could be the thing. Any change in the level of hormones or inflammation which leads to body temperature increase is likely to trigger a migraine. Thank you. Have a lovely weekend.

[Loulou1922 in reply to Chleo11]

definitely for me, a little change in hormones and pow!! You too, wishing you a migraine free weekend :))

[Chleo11 in reply to troy04]

Thanks very much Troy. Yes, I know, when my migraines were still only episodic still, I could be guaranteed to get one when getting in contact with a virus. Just comes at a very bad time. I've stopped the antibiotics now. Could barely eat anything this morning and I thought enough is enough. If you have any link or resources to be accessed online in relation to scientists disputing the length of time antibiotics should be taken, can you please include them in a response? Would be greatly appreciated. Have a lovely weekend.

[troy04 in reply to Chleo11]

Prof Martin Llewelyn is a Consultant in Infectious Diseases. Since 2021 he has been Clinical Research Director at the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.

The research of Martin Llewelyn and colleagues was published in BMJ in 2017.

I wanted to provide genuine source / link, but BMJ (The British Medical Journal) requires paid membership to read the full article and it is expensive. However, you can see some part of it which would be enough to understand in below link (free to read) :

bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j34...

The summary of the above can be seen in below link (Oxford University News):

ox.ac.uk/news/2017-07-27-it...

Hope this helps.

[bennevisplace]

We're often quick to blame things for symptoms just because they began at the same time. It could be coincidence and largely due to inflammatory response, then the infection being cleared. Once the antibiotics have done their thing, your system has a lot of dead bodies and cells to eliminate, plenty of scope for headache etc. In your position I would definitely finish the full course of antibiotics.

[Chleo11 in reply to bennevisplace]

Hi there. Thank you for your input. It is such a difficult decision to take. Have a lovely weekend.

[bennevisplace in reply to Chleo11]

👑