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Migraine headaches are a very treatable condition. Most patients could
achieve good control of their headaches. The first step
in the treatment is to eliminate exacerbating factors. There
are multiple factors that might induce a migraine. These
could include lack of sleep, skipping meals, sunlight, and
different kinds of food. The patient has to take notice
of which of these factors are inducing the headaches and
eliminate them.
The second step is medications. There are two categories
of treatments. They include the abortive drugs and prophylactic
drugs.
Abortive Treatments:
These are medications that the patient takes when they get
migraines in order to end the attack. There are several
classes of drugs including the over the counter pain killers
like Motrin and Tylenol. Other prescription pain killers
are used as well including codeine based medications like
Vicodin. These medications could be helpful as long as they
are not used frequently. Frequent use of these medications
could lead to exacerbation of headaches and patients could
develop daily headaches. In addition each of these mediations
has specific side effects that limit their frequent use.
Another class of prescription drugs is the triptans like
Imitrex and Maxalt. These medications could be more effective
if over the counter medications do not work. However, frequent
use of triptans is not recommended for all patients, as
there is a risk of stroke and other side effects with frequent
use.
Prophylactic
Treatments:
If a patient has one or more headaches a week then medications
are used to try and prevent the headaches or lower the frequency
of headaches. This is a very important category of medications
as patients often take abortive medications too frequently
which exacerbate their headaches and lead to other side
effects. Prophylactic medications are taken daily as opposed
to the abortive medications which are only taken when a
headache starts. There are multiple classes of medications
that could be used. They include medications that are used
to treat depression, epilepsy, and hypertension. These drugs
could be very safe if used properly. The type of treatment
chosen for each patient will vary depending on the side
effect profile of the drug, the patients characteristics
and other illnesses that the patient might have, and the
interaction of the medications that the patient is already
taking with the migraine medications.
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