I don't think your age should make a difference at all for you to qualify for pain management. However, I do know due to personal experience there are over 35 different meds to try to abort and prevent your headaches. Until you have tried them all and exhausted out your resources I don't think you are ready for the heavy duty pain killers like methadone or duragesic patch. My dr gave me imitrix, zomig, axert, vicodin and percecet to abort my ha of which I suffered from chronic cluster headaches and would get 8 ha a day for 1 1/2 hours each at a level of 10 for pain. However the percacet and vicodin only reduced my 10's to 7's or 8's. But it kept me out of the ER of which I was going to aprox 6x a month. I also suffer from migraines. Finally after I had tried everything my neuro could think of I was sent to a pain management/headache specialist/neurologist who verified I had indeed tried everything there was to try and recomended methadone and latter duragesic patch. The stronger narcotics don't give you a buzz but they sure make me tired. I was sleeping 15 hours a day on both of the meds I tried. So they don't solve all your problems and can create new ones. I pray you find some relief soon and good luck to you.