Migraine is
not just a severe headache, but it’s a result of specific physiologic changes
in the brain. Beside the headache there are many associated symptoms such as:
sensitivity to light, sound and smells, nausea, vomiting. Usually the pain is
unilateral on the one side of the head.
Migraine
with aura is a term for migraine with specific warning symptoms. These symptoms
can be blind spot in one eye, flashing lights or numbness of the one side of
the body. The aura lasts until the
headache begins or may last until the end of the headache.
It’s thought that the main reasons for migraine are the changes of some
neurotransmitters (hormone like substances that send messages between brain
cells). There are many triggers for this condition such as normal hormone
fluctuations( regular menstrual cycles, oral contraceptive(birth pills) ), some
food such as red wine, chocolate, aged cheese, stress, oversleeping, changes in
barometric pressure can lead to migraine.
The treatment
depends of the type of migraine. The usually drugs are: ibuprofen, acetaminophen,
triptans (sumatriptan, almotriptan, eletriptan can be very effective). Very important
for the therapy are: the age, sex, blood pressure of the patients. In the
therapy may be included antidepressant medications, anti-seizure medications,
blood pressure medications and magnesium, butterbur, riboflavin. Some patients
with very frequent headaches( more than 15 per month) might benefit from botox
injections.
