Chronic Daily Headaches

I'm a 21 year old 5'11 142lb male. I've been living with daily headaches for around 10 years. I usually wake up with the beginning of a headache and have a full blown headache within 5 hours of waking up. I usually take Excedrin for the headaches but most of the time Excedrin isn't working. I sometimes mix it up and take Naproxen sodium or ibuprofen. Most of the time these medications don't work. Aspirin and Ibuprofen rarely ever work. I rarely ever go a day without a headache. When I get headaches they are usually on the left side of my head and I have a throbbing pain. Every time I get a headache I can feel a vein in my head (close to the temple) throb/pulsate if I touch it with my hand. It doesn't pulsate when I don't have a headache. Sometimes even thinking about getting a headache will give me a headache.

When I was between 12-16 years old I was seeing a variety of doctors and put on a lot of different medications. I've had 3 or 4 CAT scans and MRI's. I've seen neurologists and other specialists. Here are a list of a few of the medications I can remember being on:
Amerge
Naproxen
Topamax
Imatrex
Compazine
Depakote
Various nasal sprays
I'm sure there are a few I have left out. None of these medications have helped with my daily headaches. I kind of gave up with doctors when I was about 16 or 17 because nothing was working.

I am currently taking Seroquel (for anxiety), Lamictal (mood stabilizer), and my doctor has me on Flexeral (muscle relaxer) as needed because I was having pain in my neck down to my shoulder blade so he through that maybe the Flexeral might help the headaches along with the back pain. I rarely take the Flexeral because they do not help with the headaches and my neck/shoulder blade pain has basicually went away.

I went to a ************** inpatient facility in early december and the psychiatrist put me on Seroquel then. I was on Klonopin when I went into treatment and she took me off of that because I have a benzo and opiate addiction. When I got clean in December, my headaches started coming back daily. From the time I was 18-20 (and using), my headaches were down to 4-5 times a week. I have been on Seroquel since December and Lamictal for close to too years. I don't know if the Seroquel is causing more headaches or not but I don't really want to stop taking Seroquel because it has been wonderful for my severe anxiety disorder. I have also had trouble with my anxiety (I'm diagnosed with serve anxiety) and the Seroquel works the best. My doctor has had me on a variety of meds for my anxiety including Zoloft, Effexor, Lexapro, Paxil, Abilify, Buspar, and Klonopin. I might be leaving a few out. None of the meds worked for my anxiety, other than klonopin (which I can't take for obvious reasons). Seroquel works even better than the Klonopin did.

I take magnesium sulfate, a multi-vitamin, vitamin E, and Zinc almost daily. The only other meds I take are Seroquel 200mg/day and Lamictal 150mg/day (and usually Excedrin). I have been clean from all drugs and alcohol for 4 months now.


Any ideas on whats doing on or what might help?

[Dr Santos]

Hi,
How are you? I'm sorry to hear what you have been through for the last ten years. From your initial description, this could be  migraine headaches  which presents with  one-sided throbbing pain. Were you able to identify the triggers of your headache? It is also possible that you experienced rebound headaches in the past from your medications. Another differential is hemicrania continua, which is a rare form of chronic headache marked by continuous pain on one side of the face that varies in severity. The cause of this disorder is unknown but can be treated with indomethacin, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). Discuss this with your doctor for proper management.Take care and regards.