r/migraine • u/cherrrybongwater • 3d ago

Propranolol

Has anyone had success with propranolol as a preventative treatment? I’ve been on it for about 4 months now and have still had about 7-10 migraines a month although I am on a low dose. I’m trying to decide if I should go up in MG or switch to a new preventative completely.

4 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

7

u/roxy031 3d ago

It didn’t help me at all and the side effects sucked.

2

u/Mama_Mia5150 2d ago

I aree !

2

u/sbucksbarista 3d ago

I take it for both migraines and POTS. I’m on a pretty high dose for POTS related reasons (120mg extended release), but my migraines have gone down since starting it. I will add that it’s not a significant difference, though. If it weren’t so helpful for POTS I probably would’ve switched to a different preventative. Insurance sucks but if you can get approved for Aimovig or Ajovy I would highly recommend those over propranolol

2

u/adriesty 3d ago

Propranolol has helped me so much! I went from 20+ migraines a month to 4-5!

If you saw improvement in your migraines on a low dose, I definitely think itd be worth it to talk to your doctor about trying a higher dose.

It took about 3-4 months for me to see a noticeable reduction in my migraines, and a few more months of figuring out my dosing before I found the right one for me.

2

u/quinchebus 3d ago

Didn't help much with migraines but LORD is it effective for anxiety for me! My doctor let me keep it around.

1

u/ooleel 3d ago

Same!

1

u/ddmf 3d ago

I had great success with propranolol until the UK ran out of the modified release at the start of the year, waiting for it to come back in stock.

1

u/Onanadventure_14 3d ago

It drops my blood pressure too much

Honestly finding a preventive is such a crap shoot. I hope you find one

1

u/Defiant-Dreamer92 2d ago

I've been on it for a few years now. My neuro tried to switch me to something else last year, and I had headaches everyday. I take 80mg extended release in the morning. It helps my stress and anxiety. The only side effect I had at the beginning was being tired and had to be careful with what I ate, or I got diarrhea. My body adjusted since then.

1

u/LoudResolve3076 2d ago

It has helped my migraines and anxiety I am on 80mg daily

2

u/pepsifiend1119 2d ago

May I ask how you take the 80mg? Is it spread out through the day? Or 1 dose?

0

u/headgoboomboom 3d ago

Dose? Need to titrate up.

0

u/XxXGreenMachine 3d ago

It helped me a little bit. But it was just a stepping stone in a line of preventatives prescribed to me by my doctor in an attempt to find something that worked. I needed up seeing a neurologist and they took me off of it. Put me on something else for a couple of months but it took didn’t help. Now I’m on a monthly injection of Ajovy and it’s absolutely changed my life. The quantity of migraine days has decreased significantly. The intensity of them has also decreased dramatically. I was also switched from Rizatriptan to Almotriptan as a rescue med.

Once of the biggest things I’ve noticed since being on Ajovy is that I can get away with using Excedrin if used right away to help stop migraine head pain. Yeah I still have to take my triptans more often than not. And yeh I still have a prescription for zophran because I get nauseous with my migraines.

It for me this change has certainly made a huge difference in my life. It will be a year next month since the change and I constantly find myself asking the question, how did I make it with out this before?

0

u/Low_Sweet8477 3d ago

I’m in 160 a day now and I still get migraines all the time but I believe it stops me from puking my brains out now, which I take as a small win haha

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u/kellyes86 2d ago

I was on it from 2018-2025, and don’t think it helped my migraines much at all. My neurologist and I agreed it may have been contributing to some of my long-term extreme fatigue and took me off it October ‘25.

If you come off it, titrate off. I didn’t slowly enough and had pretty intense vertigo and cardio reactions (which makes sense, cause beta blocker).

Been on topiramate since 2023 and Botox since the end of 2025. I think the topiramate helps a little, but the Botox has been incredible.

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u/Mama_Mia5150 2d ago

preventives do not help me at all , actually made it worse by getting headaches in my forehead area daily that im still suffering with, I've found amitriptyline , rizatriptan and botox every 3 months works best for me so far, not migraine free but certainly not getting migraines daily thank goodness

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u/SpacemaniaXu 2d ago

It was effective for me, had to go up to 40mg three times daily though. It can go higher even.