Category: Migraine Canada™ Archived

How to plan a preventative treatment trial?

Before starting a preventative treatment, it is important that you understand what the steps are. In order to assess the effectiveness of a preventative treatment, knowing the initial situation is required. What is the frequency of your attacks? Using a migraine diary is very useful….

Why take antidepressants to treat migraine?

Antidepressants often have a bad reputation with patients. However, they are efficient when it comes to reducing the frequency of migraines. Read this article to know more about antidepressants. Clinical scenario : You consult with a migraine specialist. He or she prescribes Elavil, saying this medicine…

STOP THE ATTACK

When you feel a migraine coming on, you only have one thing in mind: “it has to stop, otherwise I will lose the whole day.” But what medicine to take, and when? “Do I need a prescription?” This section presents treatments you can use to…

What is the best way to stop an attack?

You have to stop the attack at its onset. Treating an attack that is already well established is harder. Identifying the onset of an attack is a primordial step. To successfully control your migraines, you have to: know your attacks and be able to identify…

Help! My acute treatment does not work. Why?

No treatment is 100% effective. It happens that attacks are very strong and do not respond to usual treatments. What can you do? Adjusting the acute treatment is not always an easy task. The cause of the failure has to be identified. This table presents…

Does weight have an influence on headaches?

If you are overweight, you are 3 times more likely to develop chronic headaches than people with a healthy weight. Several studies have established an association between weight and headaches (not only migraines): overweight or obese people are more likely to suffer from frequent headaches….

What is medication overuse and why is it important?

If you have frequent headaches and are using symptomatic medications frequently, could your medication use be part of the problem? Shown below are the limits suggested by the International Headache Society which, if exceeded, places people, particularly those with migraine, at risk for increasing headache…

How many different types of triptans are there?

There now are 7 different triptans available in Canada, and some have more that one formulation : injections, tablets to swallow, tablets that dissolve in the mouth, and nasal sprays. They are listed in alphabetical order in the table below. If you are taking one,…

Are tablets my only option?

I have fast rising attacks with early nausea or vomiting. I do not keep the tablets. Are there other options for me? Many people with migraine have nausea or in some cases even vomiting with their attacks. For this reason, medications that are ingested may…

What about strong painkillers?

By strong painkillers, most people mean the ones that contain opiates. The most common opiate included in the combination drug analgesics is codeine. Although such medications are in some ways good painkillers, there are reasons to try to avoid them in migraine. For one thing,…

The available symptomatic migraine medications

The medications to be discussed here are the symptomatic migraine medications which are used to treat individual migraine attacks. They can be divided into four broad categories 1) The simple analgesics Included here are medications like acetylsalicylic acid ASA for example, Aspirin and acetaminophen ,for…

Migraine & Posture

So we have all likely been told at one time or another to stand up straight. Proper posture is an important part of overall health and wellness. For those who experience a headache disorder, including migraine and/or tension-type headache, postural awareness and correction is an…

Ways to improve sleep

Lack of sleep is a common trigger. Is there a way you can improve sleep? Read more for advice on how a regular sleeping schedule can improve your headaches. 5 tips to improve sleep: A regular sleep schedule of 7-8 hours a night. Do not…

More frequent with time?

For some individuals with migraine, the headaches become more frequent with time. Although most people with migraine can look forward to eventual improvement, or at least stability of their migraine, migraine does worsen over time in some people. This has been called migraine progression. A…

What is a tension headache?

A tension type headache is very different from a migraine. It is actually its opposite! How can you differentiate it from a migraine attack? You have a headache that you can recognise at the onset, which occurs once in a while: – Light to moderate,…