shane1837 said:
My questions : Can an old split tablet become 'unstable' due to moisture, or any other sort of degradation and become toxic/unstable? I was biting them and then swallowing with water - could the acid from my saliva have degraded the tablet in any way when it was left in the container? Can only taking a quarter cause this reaction due to an imbalance of ingested ingredients? Also, can sumatriptan be harmful to a non migraine sufferer(which I believe I am) even if they only take a very small amount? There was no intense headache or weakness of muscles one one side or anything after the reaction so I'm confident I didnt have a stroke or anything too serious. Thanks for the help. Shane.
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Hi Shane.
Sorry you had to find the site.
Imigran was designed primarily for use in Migraine patients.
The tablets you mention usually come in sealed packaging with an expiry date.
This is usually around 18 months, in my experience, but it also depends on how long your Doctor had them laying around.
Tablets open to air can oxidate or become unstable.
My specialist (An expert in this area) once told me, as a general principle, never take Medications outside of their expiry date. Most drug datasheets explain that a drug used past its expiry date may become ineffective, may work differently, may interact with other drugs differently, or may even cause harm.
I could only speculate on the degradation from contact with saliva, but I suspect it would not have helped in storage of the medication.
Imigran tablets should not be split up.
Unless a drug has a line through the centre like these in the picture, where it is designed to be split, it should be taken whole, with regard to specific prescribed dosage in mind. Your Doctor may also occasionally instruct you to halve a pill, or cut one with a pill-cutter to achieve desired dosage.
This is not the case with Imigran.
Some are drugs are designed as a single unit pill, with enteric coatings for different or slow-release delivery methods.
Imigran is not a slow release drug, quite the opposite, a version called Imigran FDT (triangular salmon coloured 50mg) is a Fast Dispersion Tablet, designed for quick release and fast effect. Oral absorption of Imigran tablets is poor, typically around 15% of the 50mg oral drug (as succinate) is bioavailable and usually the full 50mg (or 100mg in some cases) is required to abort a cluster attack. This is why CHers often use Imigran injections, with 96% bioavailabiility when injected in 6mg doses.
Essentially the same drug, but with different dosage and delivery method.
Imigran probably shouldn't space you out.
But it seems it is not well tolerated.
I threw up my first few, but persisted and now they are a mainstay, I used an FDT last night. Perhaps you may want to take Maxalon to prevent vomiting, as I did.
With practice, you can keep them down.
This does not mean I recommend that you take Imigran at all.
You need to see you Doctor about your dosages and reactions to them.
Imigran doesn't work for everyone.
Harm from Imigran may occur to any person who ingests it, no matter what the headache type. So have a talk with your specialists.
The symptoms you describe don't sound like CH to me.
A Headache of 3 days duration could be many other types, but almost certainly rules out CH.
I am not a Doctor, so double-check me.
Cheers, Ben.
