My mother took beta blockers for a while. Although she gets migraines, the meds were actually prescribed for heart problems. They did also make her migraines go away. A couple weeks after she started taking them, she was all excited because she hadn't had a migraine since starting meds. But then the other side effects kicked in and made her pretty miserable. I think in general they just made her extremely tired. She stopped taking them. She did get her heart doctor to agree that it was ok to stop, but her main reason for not wanting to take them anymore was side effects. As happy as she was initially to get rid of headaches, she still was not willing to continue with the meds. I'm sure severity of side effects are different for everyone, though. Her bad experience doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't try them. You can always stop if it is too unpleasant.

I am taking a calcium channel blocker for my migraines (and so far it is not working well for me), but if you are at the point where you should take daily medicine to prevent often re-curring migraines, I would think that at least trying the Beta Blocker would be worth it. Then evaluatie, When I have a migraine I cannot do much of anything, if you're the same, and you can do more when taking the beta blocker, then then that is a good thing. If you find you do even less, then it's time to try a different Med. We are still in the experimental stage to see what will work.

Vickey-MN

Many years ago I took beta blockers for migraine. I found taking three pills a day a bit much to avoid one or two headaches a month. Also, my blood pressure dropped to 90 over 60. So that was the end of the beta blocker thing for me.

I find that Maxalt works well for my migraines, which I get from 1 to 3 times a month. You're supposed to take it as soon as you feel a migraine coming on. I still find it hard sometimes to decide if I think my headache will turn into a migraine or not, but I'm getting better at recognizing it. I had these headaches for years, which I describe as a train of pain driving through my brain & which often made me vomit. Finally, I told my dr., who was amazed I'd never mentioned it before. Sure, I thought the vomiting was a little much for a headache, but the possibility of migraines just never occurred to me. Anyway, Maxalt is wonderful for me & it might be worth asking your dr. about it if your migraines are infrequent.

I tried the calcium channel blocker too and it didn't work for me. I use Imitrex and it usually helps. Imitrex and Maxalt are very expensive drugs if you don't have insurance.

My problem was knowing if it was a sinus headache or a migraine. I usually didn't know until it was either going away or terrible. When the pills cost $16 each you hate to waste one on sinus.

I have never used a beta blocker for migraines but all kinds of pills on the market. Since I have a lot of migraines I started to worry about the side effects of all these pills. A friend of mine actually recommended some whole food vitamins combined with minerals. I had my doubts of course but since I do take them, my migraines are almost gone. It's unbelievable and I keep on recommending the products. I don't know if I can post the link here but if you're interested let me know...