Maxalt®, Maxalt-MLT® (rizatriptan)
Rizatriptan is an antimigraine medication, and should not be used to relieve any kind of pain other than Migraine. Many people find that their Migraines stop completely after they take rizatriptan. Other people find that their Migraines are much less painful, and that they are able to go back to their normal activities even though their Migraines are not completely gone. Rizatriptan often relieves symptoms that occur together with Migraine pain, such as nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light, and sensitivity to sound. Type of medication: Rx, abortive, triptan, antimigraine agent
How supplied: 5 mg and 10 mg tablets, 5 mg and 10 mg orally dissolving tablets.
Precautions:
Rizatriptan is generally not prescribed under these conditions:
- presence or risk factors for coronary artery disease
- history of heart attack
- uncontrolled hypertension
- basilar or hemiplegic Migraines
- history of stroke
- presence of Raynaud's syndrome
- Phenylketonuria (PKU)—The oral disintegrating tablets may contain aspartame, which can make your condition worse
- allergy to or strong sensitivity to aspartame (orally dissolving tablets only)
- Do NOT take Imitrex within 24 hours of taking any other triptan unless specifically told to do so by your doctor.
- Do NOT take Imitrex within 24 hours of taking any ergotamine medication such as DHE or Migranal.
Pregnancy and Breastfeeding:
- FDA pregnancy category C. This means that it is not known whether this drug will harm an unborn baby. Do not take this medication without first talking to your doctor if you are pregnant or could become pregnant during treatment.
- It is not known whether this medication passes into breast milk. Do not take without talking to your doctor if you are breast-feeding a baby.
Other medical
conditions:
The presence of other medical problems may
affect the use of rizatriptan. Make sure you tell your doctor if you have any
other medical problems, especially those listed below. Heart or blood vessel
disease and high blood pressure sometimes do not cause any symptoms, so
some people do not know that they have these problems. Before deciding
whether you should use rizatriptan, your doctor may need to do some tests
to make sure that you do not have any of these conditions.
- angina, heart or blood vessel disease
- Raynaud's syndrome
- fast or irregular heart beat
- uncontrolled high blood pressure
- kidney disease
- liver disease
- stroke (history of)--The chance of side effects may be increased.
- seizures or Epilepsy
- basilar or hemiplegic Migraine
Other
medications:
Be sure to tell your doctor if you are taking any other prescription or
over-the-counter medications, especially other prescription medicine for
Migraine or depression.
- Do not take rizatriptan if you have taken a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) such as isocarboxazid (Marplan), tranylcypromine (Parnate), or phenelzine (Nardil) within the last 14 days. The combination could cause seizures, nausea, vomiting, sweating, flushing, and dizziness.
- Do not take rizatriptan if you have
taken any of the following medicines within the previous 24 hours:
- ergot-based medications such as methysergide (Sansert), ergotamine (Ergostat), dihydroergotamine (D.H.E., Migranal Nasal Spray), and ergotamine combination products (Cafergot, Ercaf, Wigraine, Cafatine, Cafatine-PB, Cafetrate).
- another triptan such as rizatriptan (Maxalt, Maxalt-MLT), naratriptan (Amerge), zolmitriptan (Zomig), almotriptan (Axert), frovatriptan (Frova), or eletriptan (Relpax)
- Before taking rizatriptan, tell your
doctor if you are taking
- a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) such as fluoxetine (Prozac), fluvoxamine (Luvox), paroxetine (Paxil), sertraline (Zoloft), or citalopram (Celexa), or
- propranolol (Inderal)
