I just wanted to reach out to see if anyone can figure this out. I posted in a VM Facebook group but no one seems to know. I have had gallbladder problems for about 2 years now. I have a hyperkinetic gallbladder with an ejection fraction of 85%. Every month or so it will absolutely wreck me. Nausea for weeks at a time. The last couple of times this has happened I end up taking Zofran for weeks at a time every day. I notice during these times that my 24/7 VM calms down a bit. At first, I chalked it up to coincidence, but now I am wondering if the Zofran is the reason. I’ll even feel the start of one coming on and it never amounts to anything. Then the other day I had one of those rare “normal” days (and man was it good), of which I have maybe had 3 total in 10 months.
So my question is, what does the zofran do that would be helping me. I am not totally understanding the role it plays with serotonin, or how it differs from an SSRI. I tried Zoloft and it made me worse. I am hoping to figure this out bc perhaps it will help me find some other drug that could help me. Any ideas are greatly appreciated. TIA.
“It is ineffective for treating vomiting caused by motion sickness”
Don’t discount the possibility that your VM is improving anyway, and that this might just be a coincidence. I know @Onandon03 has had her MAV for a long time, but increasingly gets clear symptom free days.
So this is total speculation, but maybe it has to do with effects on the vagus nerve. Zofran works by unknown mechanism, but according to drugs.com “Ondansetron treats and prevents nausea and vomiting by an unknown mechanism, possibly by a direct effect on the CTZ (the area of the brain associated with vomiting), the vagus nerve or both.” I also came across this article about vagus nerve stimulation potentially helping VM. https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/migraines/82383
Whatever it is, if you think they are linked I would definitely try to explore it further. For me, Zyrtec plus osteopathic manipulation and acupuncture has basically (for all but 1 day when I felt on the verge all day and couldn’t function) stopped the vertigo piece of my migraines for over 3 years. Each of those by themselves doesn’t do the whole trick and Zyrtec has been the biggest piece of it, but it’s kind of been accidental discovery that has got me to where I am. Clearly mine has a huge histamine piece to it, but when I shared my super exciting results with my neurologist at the time, he just brushed me off because there are no double blind studies for its effectiveness. True, but if there was only 1 cause and solution out there, we probably wouldn’t have such varied experiences on this board.
If it is the source of your improvement, hope it continues.
I don’t think my VM is improving, though I wish it were. I think that I am either experiencing a decrease in symptom activity during the times I am nauseous or the zoltan is doing something. Usually, by the time I decrease the dose or stop the dose the vm symptoms come back full force.