Sumatriptan
Sumatriptan 25mg, 50mg and 100mg tablets for migraine attacks, taken as soon as the headache starts to ease pain, nausea and light sensitivity, in packs to suit regular or occasional use.
All strengths and pack prices
| Strength | Pack | Price | Per tablet |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25mg | 10 tablets | $51.00 | $5.10 |
| 25mg | 20 tablets | $88.40 | $4.42 |
| 25mg | 30 tablets | $120.00 | $4.00 |
| 25mg | 60 tablets | $215.40 | $3.59 |
| 25mg | 90 tablets | $289.80 | $3.22 |
| 25mg | 120 tablets | $349.20 | $2.91 |
| 50mg | 10 tablets | $54.60 | $5.46 |
| 50mg | 20 tablets | $101.20 | $5.06 |
| 50mg | 30 tablets | $101.10 | $3.37 |
| 100mg | 5 tablets | $39.10 | $7.82 |
| 100mg | 10 tablets | $70.60 | $7.06 |
| 100mg | 20 tablets | $132.60 | $6.63 |
| 100mg | 30 tablets | $186.90 | $6.23 |
- Category
- Neurology
- Active ingredient
- Sumatriptan
- Route
- Oral
- Form
- Tablet, Injection
- Strengths
- 25/50/100mg
You will receive a quality generic, depending on stock.
Shipped in a discreet, unmarked envelope.
Details
- Conditions
- Migraine
- Therapeutic Class
- Triptan
- Pharmacological Class
- 5-HT1 agonist
- Minor Side Effects
- Tingling, Warmth, Dizziness
- Moderate Side Effects
- Tightness in chest, Nausea, Fatigue
- Dosage Forms
- Tablet, Injection
- Administration Route
- Oral
- Originator
- GSK
- Onset Time
- 30–60 minutes
- Duration
- 2–4 hours
- Storage Instructions
- Store in a cool, dry place.
- Drug Interactions
- MAOIs, Ergot alkaloids, SSRI antidepressants
What you will receive
Sumatriptan is a generic medicine sold under the name of its active ingredient, Sumatriptan.
- The manufacturer depends on what is in stock when your order ships.
- It contains the same active ingredient, at the same strength, as the brand-name versions.
FAQ
Which Sumatriptan strengths and pack sizes are there?
Sumatriptan tablets come in 25mg, 50mg and 100mg, with packs from 5 up to 120 tablets. This is generic sumatriptan. Each page shows the price per tablet in Hong Kong dollars, and the bigger packs reduce the price per tablet.
Can Sumatriptan be sent by airmail to Hong Kong?
Yes. Sumatriptan tablets are light, so standard airmail is an option at 14 to 21 business days, or 30 at most, and it is untracked. Tracked courier takes 5 to 9 business days with online tracking. Either way the parcel is plain and unbranded.
What is another name for sumatriptan?
Brand names for sumatriptan include Imitrex and Imigran. Sumatriptan tablets are a pure generic sumatriptan product and are not any of those brands. Here, sumatriptan can also be bought online as generic Imitrex.
How long does sumatriptan take to work?
Relief usually arrives within the first couple of hours, and some people notice the headache easing sooner than that. The queasiness and the dislike of bright light tend to go as the pain fades. Should the migraine return later the same day, a second tablet is an option.
Can I drink alcohol with sumatriptan?
A drink will not interfere with the tablet itself. The trouble is that alcohol is a common migraine trigger, so if wine or beer tends to bring your attacks on, skipping it matters more than anything about the tablet. Alcohol can also add to the drowsiness and dizziness that some people get from sumatriptan.
Can I take sumatriptan every day?
No. It is an attack medicine rather than a daily one. Used on more than 10 days in any month it tends to make headaches more frequent, not rarer — the pattern called medication-overuse headache. When attacks are that frequent, preventive treatment is the usual approach rather than more sumatriptan.
Is sumatriptan the same as Imitrex?
Imitrex is a brand name for sumatriptan. The active ingredient is identical, and both come as 25mg, 50mg and 100mg tablets; the name and the look of the pack are what differ. The difference between the two listings is the brand name and who makes them, not the medicine inside.
Does sumatriptan work for cluster headaches?
The tablet form is for migraine. Cluster headache brings short, severe attacks of pain around one eye, and sumatriptan is used for those as an injection or a nasal spray rather than a tablet, since those reach the bloodstream faster.
About Sumatriptan
What sumatriptan tablets are for
Sumatriptan is for the attack itself, not for stopping migraines from coming; that is a preventive medicine's job. Taken once the headache is under way, a tablet eases the throbbing pain, the nausea and the way light and noise seem to hurt. It does nothing for an ordinary tension headache, because it targets what a migraine does: widening blood vessels in the head and setting a nerve across the face firing pain signals. Sumatriptan reverses both.
Taking a tablet at the first sign
Take one tablet with water as soon as the headache starts. Speed matters: a tablet taken early in the attack usually does more, and food in the stomach makes little difference. Say the pain fades and comes back two hours on; you can take another then. When the first tablet changed nothing, a second will not help that attack.
Reach for sumatriptan on more than 10 days in a month, though, and headaches usually become more frequent rather than rarer. The name for that pattern is medication-overuse headache, and attacks that come that often need a preventive medicine instead.
Side effects
Most people notice a warm flush, tingling, a chilly feeling or heavy arms and legs, sometimes with drowsiness, dizziness or tightness in the chest or throat. These pass as the dose wears off. Go carefully with driving until you know how it affects you.
Rarely, something serious: chest pain spreading to the arm or jaw, sudden breathlessness, swelling of the lips or throat, or stomach pain with bloody diarrhoea. Those need urgent care.
Mixing it with other medicines
Leave a full day between sumatriptan and any other migraine medicine — a second triptan or an ergotamine-type drug. MAO-A inhibitors are a firm no with sumatriptan. SSRIs and SNRIs, today's common antidepressants, carry a rare risk of serotonin syndrome with a triptan: agitation, shivering, sweating and a fast pulse.
Sumatriptan narrows blood vessels, so it is not for anyone with existing heart disease, uncontrolled high blood pressure, a past stroke or poor circulation in the limbs.
Which strength, and the Imitrex listing
Tablets come in 25mg, 50mg and 100mg, and the number is the amount in each tablet rather than how fast it acts. Imitrex is the brand-name listing of the same medicine, in the same form and the same three strengths as the plain Sumatriptan listing.
Sources
- Sumatriptan: MedlinePlus Drug Information — MedlinePlus / U.S. National Library of Medicine
- Sumatriptan: medicine for migraines and cluster headaches - NHS — NHS UK