Naratriptan

What is Naratriptan?

Naratriptan is a generic tablet treatment. It’s part of a group of medicines called ‘triptans’ which specifically work against migraine headaches (with or without aura). Triptans, including Naratriptan, are symptom relievers rather than preventers. This means that Naratriptan won’t work to prevent or lower the regularity of your migraines. You take them when you first start to experience symptoms, and they work to alleviate your migraine symptoms so that you can continue with your day.

Migraine headaches are a specific type of headache. Sometimes people get indications that they’re about to get a migraine (called aura), but sometimes they can appear quite suddenly. Typical symptoms include a painful ‘throb’ on one side of the head, accompanied by increased sensitivity to light and sound. It’s not fully known what causes them, but it’s thought that they’re often triggered by specific things, such as tiredness, stress, or certain foods or drinks.

How does Naratriptan work?

Once a migraine has been triggered, it sets off temporary changes to your brain - including a widening of your brain’s blood vessels. This allows more pain and nausea signals to be sent to your brain, which gives you your migraine symptoms.

Naratriptan is a serotonin agonist. This means that it binds to the serotonin receptors in your brain, causing the widened blood vessels to re-constrict, which reduces the transmission of pain signals. This, in turn, can help both your symptoms of pain and nausea.

What doses of Naratriptan are there?

There’s only one dose of Naratriptan, of which you should take a maximum of one tablet for every four hours (and only one for the same migraine). So if Naratriptan isn’t helping you with your symptoms as you’d hoped, you should speak to our clinician. It might be the case that you need to try an alternative treatment.

How to take Naratriptan

You should always take Naratriptan exactly as prescribed by our clinician. To take Naratriptan, simply swallow one tablet whole, with water. If your symptoms aren’t improving, don’t take another tablet. You shouldn’t exceed more than one tablet in four hours, or more than two in 24 hours.

How long does it take Naratriptan to work?

Naratriptan is a rapidly absorbed treatment, and you should start to feel relief within two hours of taking it. If you don’t feel symptom relief for the same migraine after four hours, don’t take another one - contact our clinician for advice. Naratriptan takes a little longer to work than many other triptans, but this is countered by the fact that it stays in your system for longer. Where other triptans, like sumatriptan, only stay in your system for around three hours, Naratriptan works to alleviate your symptoms for six - making you less likely to need to take another tablet if your migraine recurs.

What should I do if I make a mistake when taking Naratriptan?

If you take more Naratriptan than you should, seek medical advice immediately. As Naratriptan isn’t a schedule-based treatment, you shouldn’t need to worry about missing a dose.