Zofran for Fibromyalgia pain?

[Mya Symons]

I have had a pretty bad sinus and ear infection for the last couple weeks. I am allergic to many classes of antibiotics. Thus, my doctor prescribed me doxycycline to take even though it makes me nauseas and causes me to sometimes vomit. He gave me doxycycline HCL instead of regular doxycycline and Zofran (an anti-nausea medicine) to stop the nausea and vomiting when I take it.

Something surprising happened! After a week of taking the medicines my Fibromyalgia pain lessened a lot. At first I thought it might be the doxycycline, but, after doing some experimenting, I am now pretty sure it is the Zofran.

I looked it up and apparently Zofran is sometimes used by some doctors for fibromyagia. Zofran is a serotonin5-HT3 receptor antagonist. I am not sure how that relates to fibromyalgia.

I am going to try to convince my doctor to let me keep it permanently unless there is long term side effects. Hopefully, it will last.

 

[Mya Symons]

American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy
Pharmacotherapy of Fibromyalgia
Laura M. Traynor, Christopher N. Thiessen, Andrew P. Traynor

Miscellanous Medications
Other drugs have been studied in small trials for the treatment of fibromyalgia but are not commonly used in clinical practice.

Ondansetron
Serotonin 5-HT3- receptor antagonists are candidates for treatment of fibromyalgia because preliminary evidence suggests that they may possess analgesic effects. In addition, it is thought that symptoms of fibromyalgia may be related to serotonin deficiency. Targeting the 5-HT3 receptor, which is present in areas of the brain important to pain signal processing, is postulated to affect pain transmission in the spine.[75]

Hrycaj et al.[75] investigated the efficacy of ondansetron in 20 patients with fibromyalgia using a crossover study design. The patients were asked to discontinue all medications for fibromyalgia; after a one-week wash-out period, they were given either acetaminophen 500 mg or ondansetron 8 mg orally twice daily for five days and then, after a three-day washout period, switched to the other treatment. Ondansetron treatment resulted in significant decreases in VAS scores for pain, tender-point scores, and average pain threshold. Fifty-five percent of patients were considered "responders" to ondansetron therapy, compared with 5% of patients considered responders to acetaminophen. The most common adverse effects of ondansetron were constipation and dry mouth. As ondansetron is available in a generic formulation, a prospective randomized trial might not be actively pursued.

 

[Ema]

I am going to try to convince my doctor to let me keep it permanently unless there is long term side effects. Hopefully, it will last.

I think the biggest problem would be getting your insurance to cover 8 mg twice daily, unfortunately.

I hope it continues to work...sure looks promising!