There are some older, short threads about this drug but i wondering if anyone has taken it recently and has it helped. Dr S has prescribed me pregablin but I’m too scared to take it. He has written to my GP and suggested that if I have side effects on the pregablin that I try this and actually I’d much rather start with it (from waht I’ve read) as it’s not a scary anti convulsant and my GP is very anti pregablin and has scared me silly about taking it.
I take Propranolol and if you check the Medscape website they reckon Candesartan is just as good for migraine prevention as Propranolol. I’ve found Propranolol easy to take. Little side effects for me and it works but did take a long time to really get going. It took 8 months from hitting any effective dose before it stopped the 24/7 dizziness but has gone on improving bits and pieces ever since. Don’t see why they didn’t just suggest you took Propranolol but no doubt there’s a good reason. I remember @Amylouise saying Dr S isn’t a Propranolol fan so maybe that’s it. Give it a whirl. Thought of anti convulsants scares me too. Helen
Tkanks for the reply.
I took propanalol about 5 years ago for 5 months. It didn’t help and the doctor kept upping the dose to try to get a therapeutic level but the side effects got too much for me (and I was disheartened that things hadn’t improved ) at 120mg or 140mg (can’t quite recall) so I quit it. Interesting that it helped you after sticking with it for so long. My GP takes the view that you should quit a drug if it doesn’t work a least a bit after 3-4 months.
I think Candesartan has worked for some people for whom propanalol didn’t and has around the same success rate (in trials) as propanalol for migraine relief. Also the dosage would only be 4 or 8mg a night and a once a day pill at bedtime rather than building up pregablin to 225mg and taking it 3 tds. I think 8mg of candesartan is equivalent to being given 80mg of propanalol.
I just think that if I feel more relaxed about a drug - I’m more likely to take that drug even if the success rate might be smaller. Of course, I could be back here in a few weeks saying that Cnadesartan is awful and pregablin a miracle! given how different we all seem to react to certain drugs.
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I was struck by this conclusion:
!!
Just shows you how much anxiety can take its toll, no?!
I tried candersartan for 4 weeks got to 16mg no side effects at all however no results BUT I only gave it 3 weeks so very short time either way not a scary drug at all 
‘My GP takes the view that you should quit a drug if it doesn’t work a least a bit after 3-4 months’
Oh it did do something. Cannot really remember what and how much of that, I was so ill, I would hardly have noticed anyway. Probably helped bit with the Visual Vertigo and it might have helped with the vertigo in bed a bit and then the light sensitivity a bit. And psychologically I felt as if now I was on a drug that would help it was going to start working any day now. Sometimes it’s good to be ignorant. Ignorance can be bliss. Your GP may well be right in some cases. My GP didn’t have/still doesn’t have a clue about preventives. The only other thing she knew was if a betablocker doesn’t work, to try an anticonvulsant and she even had one in mind to offer. Don’t think she believes in MAV/VM really. She always prefixes any such conversation with ‘Ah of course … they say you’ve got migraine’ Helen
Thanks everyone - although no success stories - it’s reassuring that no one has had bad side effects either.
My experience is also that doctor’s don’t seem to believe it exists (it’s just psychological I have been told a number of times over the years). My current GP says it doesn’t matter what diagnosis you have been given (he laughed wryly at Dr S’s diagnosis of Migraine variant balance disorder), it is just a set of words to describe a complex set of symptoms we know very little about. About 5 years ago I had chronic migraine headaches and got referred to a migraine clinic. My migraines started to improve after about 18 months but the dizziness started to increase - the doctor signed me off her list and maintained that the dizziness, if not in concert with a headache, had to be a different syndrome entirely and not in her remit. Grr…