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Sulfasalazine causing migraines?

Hi all,

I've suffered from migraines about 6-7 days a month for the past few years and was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease a little over a year ago. I just had a Crohn's medication switch to sulfasalazine 3 times a day in June. Since then I've had about 13-15 migraine days per month and am currently on my 3rd round of Prednisone to try to break my most recent 2 week migraine. I'm just wondering if anyone else is on sulfasalazine and has noticed an increase in migraine days.

Thanks for your help!

  1. Hi wredrobin,

    Thank you for sharing your journey with us. I'm sorry you are seeing an increase in head pain. "Headache" is listed as a potential side effect of sulfasalazine, and headache can trigger a migraine attack.

    Extended migraine pain is exhausting and frustrating, I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. The thing is when we have four or more severe migraine attacks a month, it's a good idea to discuss migraine prevention with the doctor.

    Staying hydrated, not skipping meals, keeping a regular sleep schedule and keeping our stress low all help reducing migraine attacks. Now having said that, we can be the perfect patient, "do" everything right and still have a migraine attack - 🙁.

    Let me know what you think
    Nancy

    1. Hi Nancy,

      Thank you so much for your response! I've been working with a headache specialist for about 7 months now. We've tried Cymbalta, Lexapro, and Ajovy with no success 🙁 I just called him at the end of November when I was in the midst of another 2 week migraine and asked if he thought the Sulfasalazine could be contributing to this. I was a bit frustrated that he never mentioned it before and I don't want to come off like I'm playing my own doctor, but this has been just too much lately.
      It's comforting to hear you say that a headache can trigger a migraine. I thought that might be the case, but to be honest, I really wasn't sure! I'm still learning about migraines and how to cope with them. It's so discouraging, to say the least, to go to bed with a migraine and wake up with one the next day...for weeks at a time, especially with having two little ones at home 🙁 I've really been finding this website and forum incredibly helpful in trying to figure out what's going on and what questions to ask my doctor.

      Thanks for your help and for listening!! ❤️

      Danielle

  2. Hi wredrobin,

    My pleasure! I'm happy to hear you are finding our site helpful - there certainly is a lot of good information here!!

    Please let me know how else I can help!

    Nancy

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