Does headache medicine cause stomach pain?

Question

Hello doctor,

I had a constant headache for two days then I visited a close-by pharmacy and I was asked to treat malaria. I was given Metherine Forte tablets (Artemether 80 mg and Lumefantrine 480 mg tablets) and two cards of Paucofenacmol Caplets. Two days after taking the drugs as prescribed by the pharmacist, I started having some stomach bites, serious ones which tended to go down after I eat.

It made me eat often. I went back to the pharmacy and was given worm drugs Tindex 500 (Tinidazole Tablets 500 mg) and Wormplan (Albendazole tablets 400 mg). I took those worm drugs in the morning today, yet my stomach pains are still severe.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

You have a persistent headache in the frontal part of your head. Was there fever, chills, and rigor, were you feeling like vomiting, after taking those drugs prescribed for you? Did your headache subside? The medicines given at the pharmacy are fine for malaria, but it may not have been malaria, but it could be Salmonella typhi infection, which causes typhoid fever.

Worm medicine is fine in the case. I will advise you to go to a lab and do blood film for malaria parasite, do Widal test and stool microscopy culture and sensitivity. If there is salmonella infection E coli or any enterobacteria infection, the stool MCS will detect it. If there is worm infestation such as hookworm or tapeworm, it will also pick it in microscopy.

You can take tablet Buscopan (hyoscine butylbromide) 10 mg thrice daily. Then get tablet Ciprofloxacin 500 mg bd (twice daily) take them for five days. You can add tablet Rabeprazole 20 mg bd in case if there is any peptic ulcer since the description of the pain and the location in your abdomen was not very precise.