Headache... or Migraine?

Treatment of migraine symptoms

The goals of migraine treatment are to relieve your pain, and help you to return to your normal activities.  With the variety of migraine-specific and non-specific treatments currently available, achieving pain relief and resuming your daily routine are achievable goals.

Migraine medications

After you and your doctor have discussed the nature of your migraine attacks, a course of treatment will be recommended. This may include a migraine medication and possibly nonpharmacological therapies such as biofeedback.  As for migraine medications, make sure you keep track of which work best for you, along with how rapidly you feel pain relief and when you are able to return to your normal routine.

Acute medications

The first objective of these medications is to relieve pain in order to help you control your migraine attacks, whether your attack is mild, moderate or severe.

Prophylactic (preventative) medications

These drugs are taken on a regular basis to help reduce the frequency or severity of migraine attacks.  They are unlikely to prevent every migraine attack, so most people also need to have acute medications for migraines on hand.