Discover effective migraine medications

Migraine headaches often cause a lot of discomfort, affecting daily life, so patients often seek migraine medications with the desire to stop the pain quickly.

Migraine headaches reflect physiological changes that are happening in the brain for some reason. At this time, the patient often suffers from severe pain along with other characteristic symptoms such as sensitivity to light, sound or scent.

To treat migraines, you can use both over-the-counter and prescription pain relievers. Many people with chronic migraines will need botulinum toxin (botox) injections every 3 months to help treat their headaches.

The following article will introduce the drugs being used in the treatment of migraine today for your reference.

Drugs for the treatment of acute and chronic migraines

The treatment for migraines can vary due to many factors. Usually, the course of treatment will depend on how often the headache occurs. Prescription medications help block triggers, reduce the number of migraine attacks, and control how long they last.

In the treatment of acute migraine, you can use over-the-counter medicines, such as paracetamol, ibuprofen or naproxen along with other medicines prescribed by your doctor.

Triptans drug group

Triptans including sumatriptan, rizatriptan, eletriptan, zolmitriptan, naratriptan, almotriptan, and frovatriptan can be highly effective in treating migraines. Doctors often prescribe this class of drugs to manage migraine symptoms at home.

However, not all patients can benefit from these medications. You need to find out about specific restrictions regarding the number of times your medication is taken to avoid unwanted effects.

Many other medications are also used to control migraines.

Other drugs

Other medications that can be used to treat migraines include:

• Dihydroergotamine (DHE45) is administered intravenously or as a nasal spray. However, this medicine will not work if you have used a triptan within the previous 24 hours.
• Potassium diclofenac as an oral solution. This is a strong non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug approved to treat migraines.
• Antiemetics, including intravenous metoclopramide and intramuscular or intravenous chlorpromazine, are used to relieve nausea and vomiting as well as relieve migraine attacks.

Migraine medications including both over-the-counter and prescription drugs

Addictive pain relievers

Narcotic analgesics are not required in migraine treatment and may be associated with rebound headaches. At that time, the headache is sometimes even more intense, more severe.

In cases of migraine, the doctor will closely monitor the use of acute pain relievers in the patient to avoid drug abuse headaches.

It's important to remember that using migraine medications too often can cause a reaction, increasing the frequency of headaches, even daily headaches.

Medications to help prevent migraines

If you have frequent headaches or pain that lasts for several days, your doctor may prescribe some preventive medicine. Prescription medications are sometimes needed on a daily basis to try to help reduce the frequency, severity, and duration of migraine attacks.

Many medications have been shown to be effective in preventing migraines, including:

• Medicines used to treat high blood pressure, such as propanolol, nadolol, verapamil, flunarizine
• Anti-seizure medications, such as divalproex sodium, topiramate, and gabapentin
• Antidepressants, including amitriptyline, nortriptyline, and venlafaxine
• Magnesium, riboflavin (vitamin B2) supplements…

The choice of migraine medication as well as preventive medicine will vary from person to person, depending on factors such as age, sex, blood pressure, and other existing health problems.

Chronic migraine sufferers whose pain persists for more than 15 days per day may require periodic injections of onabotulinum toxin A (botox) to control symptoms.

A new class of drugs called calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP-R) antagonists was approved by the FDA in 2018 for the treatment of chronic migraine. These medications are given as monthly or quarterly injections to relieve pain and prevent migraines from recurring. The CGRP-R class of drugs includes erenumab (Aimovig), fremanezumab (Ajovy) and galcanezumab (Emgality).

Some home remedies to help relieve migraine pain

Changing your lifestyle, diet and keeping track of migraine attacks will help prevent the disease effectively

Migraine sufferers need to control the frequency and severity of their migraine attacks. You can keep a diary to record the characteristics of the pain you experience. In fact, a person is likely to experience more than one type of migraine, so it's important to keep a record of symptoms each time they occur.

• Maintain a regular schedule of activities, eating, sleeping, resting
• Avoid foods that can trigger migraines such as alcohol, processed meats, artificial sweeteners, chocolate, dairy products, etc.
• Replenish your body with enough water because dehydration can trigger a migraine attack
• Exercise regularly, improve overall health
• Practice relaxation techniques such as meditation, yoga, stretching exercises, etc.