It’s often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound.
Warning symptoms known as aura may occur before or with the headache.
Medications can help prevent some migraines and make them less painful.
Talk to your doctor about different migraine treatment options if you’re free to’t find relief.
The right medicines, combined with self-help remedies and lifestyle changes, may help.
Migraines often begin in childhood, adolescence, or early adulthood.
Most people experience migraines without aura.
Auras are symptoms of the nervous system.
They are usually visual disturbances, such as flashes of light or wavy, zigzag vision.
Your muscles may get weak, or you may feel as though someone is touching you.
A migraine usually lasts from four to 72 hours if untreated.
The frequency with which headaches occur varies from person to person.
Migraines may be rare, or strike several times a month.
You may feel drained and washed out, while some people feel elated.
For about 24 hours, you may also experience:
Migraines are often undiagnosed and untreated.
Then make an appointment with your doctor to discuss your headaches.
Imbalances in brain chemicalsincluding serotonin, which helps regulate pain in your nervous systemalso may be involved.
Researchers are still studying the role of serotonin in migraines.
Serotonin levels drop during migraine attacks.
The result is migraine pain.
Other neurotransmitters play a role in the pain of migraine, including calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP).
Hormonal medications, such as oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy, also may worsen migraines.
Some women, however, find their migraines occur less often when taking these medications.
Migraines generally improve after menopause.
Some women report that migraine attacks begin during pregnancy, or their attacks worsen.
For many, the attacks improved or didn’t occur during later stages in the pregnancy.
Migraines often return during the postpartum period.
Medication-overuse headaches occur when medications stop relieving pain and begin to cause headaches.
You then use more pain medication, which continues the cycle.
Triptans include medications such as sumatriptan (Imitrex) or zolmitriptan (Zomig).
SNRIs include duloxetine (Cymbalta) and venlafaxine (Effexor XR).
Some triggers can’t be avoided, and avoidance isn’t always effective.
Talk with your doctor about the appropriate alternatives or dosages for you.
Migraine treatments can help stop symptoms and prevent future attacks.
Many medications have been designed to treat migraines.
Some drugs often used to treat other conditions also may help relieve or prevent migraines.
Some medications aren’t recommended if you’re pregnant or breast-feeding.
Some medications aren’t given to children.
Your doctor can help find the right medication for you.
Take pain-relieving drugs as soon as you experience signs or symptoms of a migraine for the best results.
It may help if you rest or sleep in a dark room after taking them.
Medications include:
Acetaminophen (Tylenol, others), also may help relieve mild migraines in some people.
They aren’t effective alone for severe migraines.
Triptans effectively relieve the pain and other symptoms that are associated with migraines.
They are available in pill, nasal spray, and injection form.
They aren’t recommended for people at risk of strokes and heart attacks.
Ergotamine may worsen nausea and vomiting related to your migraines, and it may also lead to medication-overuse headaches.
45, Migranal) is an ergot derivative that is more effective and has fewer side effects than ergotamine.
It’s also less likely to lead to medication-overuse headaches.
It’s available as a nasal spray and in injection form.
Anti-nausea medications.Medication for nausea is usually combined with other medications.
Frequently prescribed medications are chlorpromazine, metoclopramide (Reglan), or prochlorperazine (Compro).
Narcotics are habit-forming and are usually used only if no other treatments provide relief.
Glucocorticoids (prednisone, dexamethasone).A glucocorticoid may be used with other medications to improve pain relief.
Glucocorticoids shouldn’t be used frequently to avoid side effects.
It may take several weeks to see improvements in your symptoms.
Preventive medications don’t always stop headaches completely, and some drugs cause serious side effects.
Other beta blockers are sometimes used for the treatment of migraine.
You may not notice improvement in symptoms for several weeks after taking these medications.
Tricyclic antidepressants may reduce the frequency of migraines by affecting the level of serotonin and other brain chemicals.
Amitriptyline is the only tricyclic antidepressant proved to effectively prevent migraines.
Other tricyclic antidepressants are sometimes used because they may have fewer side effects than amitriptyline.
These medications can cause sleepiness, dry mouth, constipation, weight gain, and other side effects.
SSRIs haven’t been proved to be effective for migraine prevention.
These drugs may even worsen or trigger headaches.
In high doses, however, these anti-seizure drugs may cause side effects.
Valproate may cause nausea, tremor, weight gain, hair loss, and dizziness.
Don’t use valproate if you are pregnant or may become pregnant.
Topiramate may cause diarrhea, nausea, weight loss, memory difficulties, and concentration problems.
Pain relievers.Taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, especially naproxen (Naprosyn), may help prevent migraines and reduce symptoms.
During this procedure, onabotulinumtoxinA is injected into the muscles of the forehead and neck.
When this is effective, the treatment usually needs to be repeated every 12 weeks.
Self-care measures can help ease migraine pain.
Nontraditional therapies may be helpful if you have chronic migraine pain.
A high dose of riboflavin (vitamin B-2) also may prevent migraines or reduce the frequency of headaches.
Coenzyme Q10 supplements may decrease the frequency of migraines, but larger studies are needed.
Ask your doctor if these treatments are right for you.
Because appointments can be brief and there’s often a lot to discuss, prepare for your appointment.
Here’s some information to help you get ready, and what to expect from your doctor.
List your questions from most important to least important, in case time runs out.
Your doctor may ask:
Be sure to record your response to any headache medications you take.
Updated: 2018-05-31
Publication Date: 2018-05-31
