Symptoms
Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, facial pallor, cold hands, cold feet, and sensitivity to light and sound commonly accompany migraine headaches. Visual symptoms included seeing heat rising off the ground, seeing things jumping in front of both eyes, poor vision, halo, seeing disco lights, vision resembles looking through a kaleidoscope, bright lines, visual interference preventing reading, geometric figures, wiggling lines, wavy vision, jumping images and dancing black or white spots
Sight appears to be covered by a sheet. As a result of this sensitivity to light and sound, migraine sufferers usually prefer to lie in a quiet, dark room during an attack. A typical attack lasts between 4 and 72 hours.
An estimated 40%-60% of migraine attacks are preceded by premonitory (warning) symptoms lasting hours to days. The symptoms may include: sleepiness, irritability, fatigue, depression or euphoria, yawning, and cravings for sweet or salty foods but diet can affect what symptoms are experienced.
Figure 1 shows the symptoms of a tension headache and a migraine headache
Treatment:
There are three different levels of migraine treatment:
Preventative treatment (stopping attacks from happening)
Acute treatment (treating an attack as soon as it happens)
Rescue treatment (dealing with an attack if acute treatment does not work)4
Migraine preventatives have usually been developed to treat other conditions. Experience has shown that these drugs also stop migraine attacks from happening.
Therefore, you may be prescribed:
- an anticonvulsant, such as divaloproex sodium (sodium valproate), topiramate or gabapentin
- an antidepressant such as amitriptyline
- an antihistimine, such as cyproheptadine
- a beta-blocker, such as propranolol, metoprolol, timolol, nadolol
- an anti-inflammatory drug, such as pizotefen
Migraine-preventative medication is usually used for between 3 and 18 months. This treatment generally leads to a big reduction in the number of headaches the sufferer has. This improvement often carries on when the sufferer stops taking the preventative drug. These drugs can therefore help to break a cycle of migraine in some cases. It is important to record fully any attacks that happen when taking preventative medication as it determines if the medication is helping to cut down the headaches or not.
Many sufferers with severe migraines are treated with one of a class of migraine-specific drugs called triptans. A number of different triptans are now available in the UK. Almotriptan, eletriptan, frovatriptan, naratriptan, rizatriptan, sumatriptan and zolmitriptan all work in the same way8, but the different characteristics of each drug will suit different people. Triptans can be taken as pills, as quick-dissolving tablets, as a nasal spray, or as an injection. On average, patients who take triptans by mouth get relief from the symptoms of migraine in around half an hour. Figure 3 shows the results of a sumatriptan nasal powder trial carried out in June 2008.
- A greater proportion of subjects who received sumatriptan were pain-free at 120 minutes compared with those who received placebo (10 mg/20 mg sumatriptan vs. placebo1/454%/57% vs. 25%, P<.05)
- Significant benefits were also observed for pain relief at 120 minutes (84%/80% vs. 44%, P<.001/.01) and as early as 60 minutes (73%/74% vs. 38%, P<.01) and for 48 hours sustained pain-free (P<.05)
- Treatment-related adverse events were rare, with a metallic taste being the most commonly reported (10%/13%)
As with migraine preventative medication, a doctor prescribing acute treatments will base their decision on an assessment of disability (the effects of the migraine attacks, not necessarily how often they happen). Assessing disability will help a doctor to prescribe the right care. Ideally, the individual features of the headaches should be matched to a suitable plan for managing them at an early stage. This avoids having to keep going back to see the doctor, who may have to increase the level of treatment if lower levels fail or are inadequate.
‘Rescue medication’ can be used if acute treatment does not work. An anti-nausea (antiemetic) medication (to stop sickness), and an anti-inflammatory or pain-relieving medication may be prescribed. Using rescue medication a lot suggests that acute treatment needs changing.
Solution
There is no definite cure for migraines but some very effective treatments include:
Acupuncture
Chiropractic
Homoeopathy
Herbalism
Osteopathy
By stimulating acupuncture points, the body prompts the nervous system to release endorphins (which are chemically related to morphine) and other natural chemicals that relieve pain. There is a concept in traditional Chinese medicine, which maintains that all types of pain, including the severe pain of migraine headaches, result from blood stagnation in the meridians.9 Acupuncture treatment can promote blood circulation, remove blood stagnation, and unblock meridians to relieve the symptoms. With increased cerebral circulation, the afflicted region obtains sufficient blood supply, oxygen and nutrition. Treating symptoms at the earliest possible opportunity increases the strength of positive results.5 Experts who administered the needles treatment to women suffering from the debilitating condition found they had fewer attacks and needed less painkilling medication.
Researchers focused on classical migraine - or migraine with aura - when the piercing headache is preceded by visual disturbances.
They conducted a trial of 160 patients at the Woman's Headache Centre in Turin. Dr Gianni Allais and colleagues found that women who received acupuncture had fewer migraines during the first four months of treatment.
Homoeopathy considers migraine as a personality disorder and for this reason the treatment must be decided on the basis of a complete study of the patients' personality. There are hundreds of Homeopathic medicines which are used successfully for the treatment of migraine. For a permanent relief from Migraine, patients need to seek a Homeopath consult with an experienced professional who can understand the picture of the disease from a detailed analysis of the patient to find the correct remedy for that particular patient based on the patient’s individuality. This constitutional approach helps treat almost all cases of migraine successfully. Also, Homeopathic medicines are 100% safe with no side effects and are proven effectively on human beings.13 The positive effect of Homeopathic treatment is long lasting and can last for life.
With most of the patients the initial improvement starts after 2-4 week treatment, reducing the frequency and interval of the attacks. The attacks are almost terminated after 4-8 week treatment. But to achieve the maximum and the most permanent result the patient has to undergo 8-18 month treatment.
Reference Evaluation
Many of my references are from websites such as migrainetrust.org and healthcentral.com which are both owned and published by experienced medical professionals and the information is updated regularly so these websites are very reliable as the information cannot be edited by members of the general public. I used some information from the BBC News website which is another reliable source. I also used some information from consumerreports.org, I thought this wasn’t as reliable as my other references as the information could be edited by anyone logged in to the website but I found similar information on different more reliable website but I choose to use Figure 1 from the Consumer Reports website because it was the only website that displayed this information in a table. I used one reference from an old article of the New England Journal of Medicine which is very reliable although it is 10 years old the information is still relevant as it just briefly outlines the pathophysiology of a migraine headache.
Bibliography
- The Migraine Trust
(02-03-12)
- Consumer Reports
(01-03-12)
- Nursing practice Hospital and Home: The Adult Third Edition; page.702
- BBC News
(04-03-12)
- The Migraine Trust
(04-03-12)
- Acupuncture and Wellness
(04-03-12)
- The Daily Mail
(21-03-12)
- Behavioural Treatment of Migraine in Children and Adolescents
- UTS Acupuncture Clinic
(08-03-12)
-
(22-03-12)
- Goadsby P, Lipton R and Ferrari M (2002). Migraine- Current understanding and treatment. New England Journal of Medicine; page.258
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