Migraine Treatment

Migraine headaches are usually characterized by severe pain on one or both sides of the head. Absent serious head injuries, stroke, and tumors, the recurring severity of the pain indicates a vascular headache rather than a tension headache. Many factors can trigger migraine attacks, such as alteration of sleep-wake cycle; missing or delaying a meal; medications that cause a swelling of the blood vessels; daily or near daily use of medications designed for relieving headache attacks; bright lights, sunlight, fluorescent lights, TV and movie viewing; certain foods; and excessive noise. Hormonal migraine is a likely consequence of periodically falling hormone levels causing reduction in protein biosynthesis of metabolic components including intestinal tract serotonin . In some cases, these painful headaches are preceded or accompanied by a sensory warning sign (aura), such as flashes of light, blind spots or tingling in your arm or leg. Anxiety, stress, or relaxation after stress can also be triggers. For many years, scientists believed that migraines were linked to the dilation and constriction of blood vessels in the head. Investigators now believe that migraine is caused by inherited abnormalities in genes that control the activities of certain cell populations in the brain.

Treatment of Migraine

• At the first symptom of an attack take a pain killer eg aspirin or paracetamol, even if this means waking yourself up when you notice symptoms while half asleep in the early hours of the morning. (Often by getting up time it is too late to abort the attack.)
• Sometimes bathing your head in cold water or using a cold compress on the forehead is helpful.
• Migraine-specific medications and analgesia are the keys of ED care.
• Your doctor may prescribe something along the lines of the above, or possibly one of the more modern specific antimigraine treatments, which work on one of the chemical pathways in the brain.
• Some patients find cool compresses to painful areas helpful.
• Triptans like sumatriptan (Imitrex), rizatriptan (Maxalt), almotriptan (Axert), frovatriptan (Frova), and zolmitriptan (Zomig); these are available as a tablet, nasal spray, or self-administered injection .
• If the attacks are frequent and disruptive, then your doctor may prescribe a drug to be taken daily as a preventative.
• Sometimes relaxation and meditation techniques may be helpful as may some of the complementary therapies.
• However, since these medications seldom completely banish attacks an acute treatment should be close to hand to treat those attacks that still occur.
• Some medicines also have an anti-sickness ingredient, or this can be taken separately.
• The most common medicines for treating an attack are painkillers such as aspirin or paracetamol.