Thursday, January 3, 2013

MANAGEMENT OF MIGRAINE HEADACHES

Management of Migraine Headaches

There are two steps involved in ensuring the best outcomes for a patient with migraine:

1. Correct diagnosis, and 
2. Correct treatment.

Diagnosis of Migraine Headaches

Migraine is a common condition, affecting about 15% of women and 5% of men. Often, no tests are required for diagnosing migraine. Despite this, there is a significant delay in diagnosis of migraine in many cases. The correct diagnosis depends on the clinical features. Therefore, a good history, as given by the patient, is often sufficient for the diagnosis of migraine. The details can be read on my earlier post in May 2011

http://bestneurodoctor.blogspot.in/2011/05/how-to-diagnose-migraine.html

Treatment of Migraine Headaches

Starting appropriate treatment is equally important.

Many patients come to me telling that there is no treatment available for migraine or it can not be cured or I have to suffer with these headaches whole life and so on. So, they never take any treatment. Obviously, it is totally incorrect. There are excellent treatments available for treating migraine, and more than 95% of patients get better with proper treatment. You can read about these treatments later on in this post.

There is another group of patients who take only pain-killers, as and when they get headaches. This approach is not correct and may be harmful too, on account of three reasons:

1. Taking a pain-killer may help in reducing one episode of headache, however, it does not prevent the recurrence of headaches in future.
2. Pain-killers may cause side effects such as gastric ulcers, acidity, liver damage and kidney damage, if used for long.
3. Taking more than 15 tablets of pain-killers per month may actually worsen the headaches, a condition called as analgesic-abuse or analgesic-overuse headaches.

On account of the above, it is advised to restrict the use of pain-killers to as low as as possible.

Medical treatment of Migraine

1. If a person has only one or two episodes of headaches per month, then, there is no need of any preventive medications. Use of analgesics may be justified in these cases, as and when they get headaches. Common drugs in this category include-
  • Paracetamol,
  • Disprin,
  • Zandu balm or tiger balm (very popular in India)
  • Ibuprofen,
  • Diclofenac,
  • Vasograin,
  • Rizatriptan,
  • Sumatriptan
Any of the above can be used at the time of severe headaches. Some people also have vomiting, then ondansetron or domperidone tablets may be used.

2. Preventive therapy of migraine-

If a patient gets more than two episodes of headaches per month, then, it is important to start preventive medications (on daily basis) so that the headache frequency and severity can be minimised (or stopped).
Common drugs in this category include:
  • Flunarizine
  • Beta blockers such as propranolol,
  • Topiramate,
  • Divalproex sodium
In some cases, a combination of two medicines may be required.

Patients, who do not show adequate improvement with above, can be treated with botox injections. More details on this can be read in my previous post (October 2012)

http://bestneurodoctor.blogspot.in/2012/10/botox-treatment-for-migraine.html

I hope this article provides a little help to those with migraine. If you have any further queries, please mail me.

Dr Sudhir Kumar MD (Internal Medicine), DM (Neurology)
Senior Consultant Neurologist
Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad
Phone: 0091-40-23607777/60601066
email: drsudhirkumar@yahoo.com

5 comments:

Unknown said...

How long the oral medicines need to be used.Wheather Medicines can be stopped after completion of course

Dr. Sudhir Kumar said...

Hi Chennu Sri,
The oral medications may be stopped once you have only two or fewer episodes of headache in a month.

Regards,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM

mynblogger said...

Doctor
I have tuberculosis and taking fixcom 4 for 58 days already. I have migraine and been taking flunariz 5mg at bedtime for 22 days then stopped for 7 days then took flunariz again for 7 days then stopped for 5 days and this morning I took 5mg.
I'm experiencing almost unbearable headache. I already took mefenamic acid 500mg and advil 200mg but still my headache won't go away. What should I do doctor?

Anonymous said...

HELLO SIR GOOD MORNING PLEASE LET ME KNOW THE COST OF BOTOX TREATMENT FOR MIGRAINE FOR ONE SITTING. THANK YPU .

Anonymous said...

I think this is among the most important information for me.
And i am glad reading your article. But
should remark on few general things, The website style
is ideal, the articles is really great : D.
Good job, cheers