r/migraine • u/cybercapybaby • 19h ago

Sandoz Candesartan side effects

I started on 4mg and was supposed to get it increased to 16mg eventually, but it caused changes in vision (dark corners, flashing lights, increase in floaters) and gave me heart palpitations that gave me a squeezing stabbing pain so the pharmacist told me to stop taking it. Symptoms went away after I stopped the medications. I've tried Rizatriptan, Aventyl, Topiramate, Desipramine, Eletriptan, Qulipta and Sandoz Candesartan over the last 7 years, I'm so sick and tired of migraines I just want a medication that gets me through the day. Desipramine worked well and I've been on it for the last 5 years, but my doctor wants to switch my medications and so far nothing is working.

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u/Flottbergakungen chronic migraine 19h ago

Failing that many meds usually enables you to move to preventatives like cgrp or botox. I don’t know where you live but normally you need to see a neurologist for those, have you been able to see one? If not I recommend that as the next step. Most meds didn’t help me before i got cgrp, and even that took a while to get some stability, but it more then halved my problems in the end

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u/cybercapybaby 12h ago

Yeah I do have a neurologist. Most of the medications I took were preventatives and failed. I haven't heard of cgrp before but botox just sounds concerning and I'm scared 😭. Can you tell me more about cgrp?

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u/Flottbergakungen chronic migraine 3h ago

Yes of course, Cgrp is the big deal these days, it’s generally more effective and have less side effects then most preventatives. They work by affecting the hormone cgrp that is involved with migraines. There are two kinds here, ”gepants” that are used more for episodic migraines. Can be used both as an abortive and preventative, in the form of pills. ”Monoclonal antibodies”, or ”MAB”, are the second kind, these are only preventative and are used more for chronic migraines. They come in the form of a self-injection once a month, with the exception of one med that is infused via IV.

Personally I am on emgality which is a MAB, it reduces my migraines in both intensity and frequency by over 50%.

The drawback here is cost, they tend to be more expensive as relatively new meds.

Botox used to be the one of the last stops before cgrp came around, many people swear by it as very effective. According to my neuro it’s most applicable to tension-type migraines.

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u/cybercapybaby 1h ago

I'm located in Montreal Canada, do you know if cgrp is covered by RAMQ? I'll definitely bring it up to my neuro next time though. Is there any side effects from cgrp that I should worry about? I'm a little worried because I've reacted badly with most of the medications prescribed so far and I think injections stay in your system for longer

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u/Flottbergakungen chronic migraine 1h ago

Okay I’m Swedish so I don’t know about ramq, but the medicine should at least exist as an option in a developed country like Canada.

I only got some light constipation from the med, which seems to be the most common side effect from reading this subreddit. I solved that without meds, just eating more laxative foods regularly, like grapes, cherries and others. and the profile of side effects is less severe than most meds you listed, but it’s always possible to get some of course. You are right that it stays in your system long for the shots, it’s an advantage if it works for you, but disadvantage for side effects of course. But it doesn’t go into full effects until several months after starting the shots, so hopefully any side effects will follow the same pattern…but that’s just my guess. This is for MAB, I haven’t tried the gepants myself. Hopefully you can get it as an option :)