Posts Tagged ‘butalbital’
March 31, 2012 | 
Author A new product is out, with less acetaminophen than Fioricet or Esgic: Orbivan, which has 50mg of butalbital, 300mg of acetaminophen, and 40mg of caffeine….very similar to Fioricet/Esgic(brand names), or the generic for those.
Also out is a version without butalbital, similar to Phrenilin, is Orbivan CF, which has 50mg of butalbital and 300mg of acetaminophen, without caffeine.
I feel that butalbital meds are a 2-edged sword: they are useful as painkillers for headache patients, but on the downside they may add to medication overuse headache(MOH) and may cause addiction. Despite these downsides, i do feel they play animportant role in a # of situations, and should remain on the market.
There was a negative anti-butalbital article out in the journal Headache several weeks ago; I wrote a Letter to the Editor titled “IN DEFENSE OF BUTALBITAL”, stating all the pluses and minuses of these meds. I will post that letter, which was accepted into the journal for publication, at some point.
Posted in headachedrugs | 
Tags: analgesics, butalbital, chronic daily headache, medication overuse, migraine | 
No Comments »
I see many patients with the following scenario; they go to a new neurologist/headache doc, with daily headaches. The doc asks what they are on, then proceeds to tell them that whatever meds they are on cause the headaches. The patient says “..But doctor, I have been on these for 3 months, while my headaches have been there for 18 years!!”…..Of course, rebound does occur, but it is overdiagnosed (in my opinion..but this is my blog, so I can pontificate…)…..We need to know much more about what causes rebound, which drugs, who, why, when yada yada….certainly it does occur, particularly with high-caffeine drugs, butalbital, opioids, some nsaids etc…..
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: butalbital, daily headache, Headache, nsaids, opiods, rebound headahce | No Comments »
