Unfortunately, opioid hydromorphone (Dilaudid) is still administered to 25% of patients with an acute migraine visiting an ER. Benjamin Friedman and his colleagues at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx compared the efficacy of 1 mg of intravenous hydromorphone with an intravenous nausea medicine, prochlorperazine (Compazine), 10 mg plus diphenhydramine (Benadryl), 25 mg.
They presented their findings last month at the annual meeting of the American Headache Society. The study was blinded, but a safety monitoring committee stopped it early because the results were so lopsided. Prochlorperazine with diphenhydramine was twice as effective (60%) as hydromorphone (31%) in stopping a migraine and in preventing it from coming back within 48 hours.
So, if you end up in an ER for your migraine, refuse hydromorphone (Dilaudid), meperidine (Demerol), or any other opioid (narcotic) medication. Here is my old post with drugs other than prochlorperazine that are also effective.
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