Can imitrex cause rebound headaches?

Hi,
I got a neurologist a couple months ago, she freaked that another doc prescribed Esgic for my migraines and headaches, which were/are daily for a week at a time or more. She told me that my headaches are rebound HA's and that I should switch to Extra Strength Tylenol or Imitrex and take no Esgic. She is actually worried I am addicted to the butalbital in the Esgic, a barbiturate. I didn't really care as Imitrex works better but my insurance only gives me 9 per month. The other doc had also given me imitrex but the Esgic was to fill in if I ran out or if the headaches were not quite migraines. Sometimes I get pain free migraines too, which are really weird...
So now my migraines are going daily for a week, then a week off, then another run. I can get rid of them for half a day with imitrex, but then would have to take it again. Since I don't have enough imitrex despite her giving me handfulls of samples, I often do an imitrex if I have to be somewhere and otherwise grit my teeth and ignore it. Tylenol is pretty useless and Esgic really doesn't work well if taken more than twice a week as tolerance goes up.
Is it possible to get rebounds from imitrex? I would ask her but she is extremely hard to get ahold of, only works one day a week and doesn't return calls. Is there any reason not to take more than 2 doses in a day if I need to? The packaging says "Take as suggested" which really doesn't help as I don't remember what the doctors said. Think I will take one now, actually (:
Kate

Lady Lazarus is absolutely right - Imitrex can cause rebound, as can any of the other triptans, OTC pain relievers, narcotics, etc.

Diana

Hi Kate,

Be careful with Triptans. They can definitely cause rebound headaches. Some experts say not more than 2 or 3 a month, some 2 then wait for 5 days before taking more.

As for the warning about no more than 2 in a day, DO heed this warning. Triptans can be dangerous because they constrict the size of your blood vessels and can increase your risk of stroke or heart attack. For example, on a plane I had taken one and thought I was having a heart attack because when the plane took off my blood vessels couldn't expand with the pressure (I had taken an Imitrex just before take off). I was fine because the pressure subsided but if you take too much similar things can happen if have any sort of anomaly in your cardiovascular system.