This might not be of any help to you, Shelley, but my son took clonidine when he was a little boy to ease migraines and also to calm what they thought was chorea (movement disorder) at the time. It wasn't the patch though, it was in the pill form.

I'm not sure of its mechanism in helping with migraines, but I do know that was one of the main reasons the neurologist wanted to try this drug, because he basically felt he could treat the migraines and calm the movement disorder at the same time.

Clonidine [Catapres, Dixarit] is actually one of the most common medications prescribed to help calm/reduce motor tics in people who have tic disorders and want to try medication. I don't think it's used for migraine too much these days as there are newer medications now.

Just my personal obvervations... It made him perspire profusely. It in turn made him very thirsty and had very dry eyes. It made him lethargic. That, btw, was on only one dose daily. I've since figured out that he should have been receiving split doses throughout the day rather than the one dose in the morning. I guess that's why the patch is so popular.

As mrsd said, it's extremely important never to stop Clonidine abruptly as doing that can cause rebound high blood pressure.