Medication for Migraine: What Are Your Choices

A migraine headache is not something people want to endure often, though persons with chronic migraine headaches used to do just that. Now the person with a migraine has choices and medication for migraine need not just consist of a cold cloth and lavender oil or an aspirin.

Chronic migraine headaches can be debilitating and for some people – very frequent. Narcotics were an inadequate answer for a person with a migraine headache since the whole idea was to function and be pain free and any narcotic can be addictive if used in excess. This brought about a completely new line in research and new medication for migraines and new choices for those with chronic migraine headaches.

A migraine headache often shows up in adolescence and continues until around age 60 for those with chronic migraines. Most persons with migraine headaches would only have the choice of aspirin or a trip to the hospital and strong narcotics as recently as 30 years ago.

This has changed immensely though and now the thrust is toward preventing the full-blown migraine headache by avoiding triggers and using interrupting or abortive medication designed to kill the pain and stop the cycle.

Medication for migraine headaches is becoming increasingly more sophisticated and directed to the problems associated with migraine headaches.

Serotonin appears to be low in some people with chronic migraines so some abortive types of (interrupts the migraine before it grows too large) medication for migraines are Triptans, which work on the serotonin level.

This is not a narcotic nor is it an effective painkiller for other types of pain other than headache but is proving to be effective as a medication that works for migraines. Other medications used to interrupt the migraine headache are acetaminophen-isometheptene-dichloralphenazone, dihydroergotamine and ergotamine tartrate.

Sometimes a migraine will progress too far to be interrupted and in that case, palliative medications are used to help relieve the symptoms. The most obvious of course is the headache pain but nausea is another uncomfortable migraine headache symptom that is addressed by specific medication.

A prophylactic (preventative) approach to migraine headaches is taken when the migraine episodes are several times a month and interfere with the individual’s quality of life and vocation or schooling.

The migraine prevention is often a drug that has been used for another purpose but is effective in preventing chronic migraines. It is important if preventative medication is prescribed that it be taken only as directed by the physician and exactly as directed to be safe and effective.

Though options have grown immensely in what medication for headaches is available one of the most effective treatments at this time for migraine headaches is the identification and avoidance of migraine headache triggers.

With some relatively simple lifestyle changes, regular sleep patterns, moderate exercise and a proper diet many persons who experience migraines can greatly reduce the occurrence without excessive need for medication.

In more severe cases or when a migraine episode gains too much of a foothold the newer medication for migraine headaches are injectable or inhalable which increases their efficiency immensely and control the pain much more quickly.

The days when the only medication for migraine pain was aspirin and a dark room are long past and now a person who experiences migraine headaches can look forward to pain free days.