Resolved question:
For a long time I have had depression. Back in June I had been treated for a while non-medically, which means I got therapy and I fixed the things that were making me depressed. This treatment had taken a few months and it had finally worked, I had had a normal mood for a week, and I was no longer fatigued. Then I was sitting in front of my computer under a windowsill made of stone when I tried to stand up. 10 minutes later all of a sudden again I was in a depressed mood, feeling tired as I had been feeling when I was depressed and the intensity of my visual snow increased back to the level it had been a month before for a week (which was high, and I don't know why it was high back then for the first time, but it did suddenly disappear). If you don't know what visual snow is, it's basically like having the vision of an analogue tv with a somewhat bad signal - migraine sufferers make up a large percentage of people suffering from it.
So anyway, I suddenly got depressed again, visual snow became intense, I got a headache which felt kind of like tension type headache, just slightly throbbing. I became photophobic, could barely keep my eyes open, even in the shadows until the evening. And the thing is, all of these symptoms are still there, and it's september already. I've tried ibuprofen, paracetamol and aspirin - barely any effect. I have tried physiotherapy (my father is an excellent physiotherapist, and he's treated a lot of tension headaches before), but that didn't work much either. I have tried medical quality cannabis in low doses vaporized once a day. If I use the right strain and keep the doses low it effectively gets rid of my headache and my depression for 24 hours, but not my photophobia and my visual snow (I can live with the visual snow, it's not a big problem). I'm no longer using cannabis due to it only being an experiment since I don't know for sure if it's actually a viable treatment. The headache is moderate most of the time, can sometimes be a bit severe or even just mild. The photophobia is starting to get a little bit better, possibly due to the sun being less intense now.
Any suggestions to what I should do? Could a not that severe head trauma (if you can call it that) really cause these symptoms?
Submitted:
4 Days
Category:
Family Physician-GP
Hello,
Thank you for asking your query at DoctorSpring.
I understand that you are suffering from depression for a long time. Depressive disorders are characterized by persistent low mood, loss of interest and enjoyment, and reduced energy. They often impair day-to-day functioning.
The current symptoms of headaches and visual symptoms (photophobia, snowing of visuals now) is suggestive of Migraine Type of headache. Instead of Ibuprofen, Paracetamol, Aspirin, Cannabis or Physiotherapy you should be taking a trial of anti- migraine medications like Sumatriptan (Imitrex single dose of 50 mg in consult with your Doctor. If a satisfactory response has not been obtained at 2 hours, a second dose may be administered.) or Ergotamine.
It is clear that you have moderate depressive symptoms and the depression is clearly contributing and overlapping these headaches. You should be taking anti depressive medications. Modern anti-depressants are very safe and efficient. You will be surprised to know how a simple medication can bring so much of a change in your mood. I recommend tricyclic antidepressants like amitriptyline, nortriptyline, doxepin as they are also effective in long term prevention of Migrane type headaches (dual benefit here). I recommend a Psychiatrist consultation as soon as possible.
Hope this helps
Please feel free to ask followup questions.
Thank you