Almotriptan

Almotriptan is a generic tablet treatment that you take to help you with the symptoms of migraine – a severe type of headache that produces a painful throbbing sensation, and often a sensitivity to bright light and noise.

Almotriptan relieves, rather than prevents, your symptoms – meaning that you should only take it when you notice that your symptoms are appearing, rather than on a scheduled basis.

It’s also only effective at treating migraine headaches. If you want to ease the symptoms of another headache, such as a stress or tension headache, then you should use an alternative pain-relieving medication.

It’s not fully understood what causes migraines, but it’s thought that many of the symptoms are brought on by changes in some of the nerves and blood vessels in the brain, sometimes in response to a trigger, such as certain foods or drinks.

Almotriptan is a type of medicine known as a selective serotonin receptor agonist, also simply called ‘triptans’. These work by binding to the serotonin receptors in your brain’s blood vessels, causing them to narrow. This, in turn, helps to tackle the painful and nauseating symptoms associated with migraine headaches.

Almotriptan is only available in one dose: 12.5mg, of which you should only ever take one at a time. If you often find that one tablet of Almotriptan isn’t doing enough to ease your symptoms then you should contact our clinician. It might be the case that you need to try an alternative form of treatment.

You should always take Almotriptan exactly as prescribed by our clinician. The recommended dose is to take one tablet as soon as possible when you notice the onset of migraine symptoms.  To take Almotriptan, simply swallow one tablet whole, with a glass of water. You can take it with or without food.

Almotriptan is a fast-acting tablet, which means that it should start to get to work very quickly to help alleviate your symptoms – most people experience significant symptom relief after just half an hour. ^[1] If you don’t notice any relief, you should wait at least two hours before taking another one, and don’t exceed two within 24 hours. But, because it only has a half-life of around three hours ^[2] (it takes around three hours for half of the medication to stop being active in your system), it won’t work as a preventative medication.

If you accidentally take too much Almotriptan, seek medical help straight away. As Almotriptan isn’t a schedule-based medication, you shouldn’t have to worry about forgetting to take it. Just make sure that you don’t take more than one tablet in two hours, or two tablets per day. If you have a severe kidney disease you shouldn’t exceed more than one tablet per day.