Everybody is different when it comes to headache medications. I'm kinda in the same boat as you are, have had post-concussion syndrome for 3+ years. For me headaches are the worst symptom and what I'm being treated for the most. Wake up with them and they just don't go away, varying in intensity throughout the day.

The first medicine I was prescribed was Amitriptyline ha, was a long time ago so I forgot what kind of side effects it had on me. But it did nothing for my headaches.

Then I was put on Nortriptyline for about 2-3 weeks, I too didn't really like it and for me it had no effect on my headaches. Actually made them worse for the first couple days.

After that I was put on Propranolol for two weeks and that made me feel like ****. Got no sleep the first night on it and never found it effective so my doctor (just seeing my family doctor at this time) took me off of it.

Then I was put on Topomax which did seem to help a little but my doctor noticed it gave me a racing heart so I had to stop taking it.

After Topomax I was put on Depakote, which was the worst medication I ever took. I had to go to the ER the second day of taking the medication due to a resting heart rate of 160+. Obviously I didn't stay on that.

After that my doctor referred me to a neurologist were he put me back on propranolol at an 80mg dosage for 5 weeks because I guess 2 weeks was too short to find out if the med was effective.

During those 5 weeks I moved so I followed up with a different neurologist. And of course I found no change, besides the side effects. So she doubled my dosage to 160mg and I have been on that for almost a month now with a follow appointment in 2 weeks. Propranolol is a beta-blocker (not sure what that means) but it affects blood pressure and lowers the heart rate along with other side effects. I still have a headache everyday..all day long, and I hate this medication and can't wait to get off it - with the increased dosage the side effects are just plain terrible.

Also, I have had Tramadol as prescription somewhere in that mess. I found when I took it really gave me awareness back when I had a headache and made me feel better, more motivated etc. But that would only last for about 4 hours then I would crash harder then I was before, and yeah taking to much will cause rebound headaches and only make things worse.

Hope some of that information helps you, those are all of the medications I have tried..just going through guess and check with meds really.