Migraine treatment

How to manage your migraine treatment

The first step in migraine management is to try to identify and avoid, if possible, your migraine triggers.³

If you’re living with migraine, healthy lifestyle choices such as limiting stress, eating well and getting enough sleep are really important to avoid common triggers.⁴ With busy lives it’s not always easy, but by taking positive steps to avoid potential triggers, you may be able to reduce the number of your migraine attacks and limit the need for migraine treatment.⁵

Types of migraine medications

There are two groups of migraine medications⁶ and your doctor can tell you which is best for you:

• Acute migraine treatments
• Preventive migraine treatments

Acute migraine treatments

These migraine treatments are taken during a migraine attack to help relieve headaches and other symptoms associated with your migraine.⁶

Some examples of acute migraine treatments include:⁷

• Prescription or over-the-counter pain medications
• Anti-sickness tablets

With acute migraine treatments, you could experience medication overuse headache, which happens when the acute migraine treatment you take becomes the actual cause of further headaches through overuse.⁸ Talk with your doctor if you think this applies to your situation.

Preventive migraine treatments

To help stop migraine attacks before they start, preventive migraine treatments are used. These medications are taken regularly, even when you aren’t experiencing a migraine attack. Usually, a preventive migraine treatment will be considered by your doctor if you have more than four migraine attacks a month.⁹

Some medications used for prevention of migraine were developed for the treatment of other (non-migraine) health conditions. Some examples of these medications repurposed for migraine prevention include:⁹

• Blood pressure lowering medication
• Anti-depressant medication
• Anti-epileptic medication
• Injectable neurotoxins

A class of migraine treatments called calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors has been designed specifically to target migraine.¹⁰

Alternative migraine treatment

Non-medication approaches for preventing migraine are also available and can be explored as a complementary therapy with medication.¹¹ These migraine treatments include:^11,12

• Acupuncture
• Vitamins and minerals
• Neurostimulator devices

Important migraine treatment safety precautions

Be aware of medication overuse for migraine treatment and headaches. Although painkillers are sometimes an essential way of treating headache or other pain, regular use can lead to medication overuse headaches.⁸ Overuse can cause your medication to stop relieving pain and start causing headaches.⁸ If you suspect this is the case, discuss your options with your doctor.

Do not make changes to your migraine treatment, or stop taking your prescribed medications without first consulting a doctor. Always take any medications as instructed

Be careful with taking medication if pregnant or breast-feeding. Discuss your options with your doctor or midwife as early in your pregnancy as possible.²

Have regular reviews with a doctor. Your migraine symptoms may evolve over time, so it’s important that your migraine treatment approach adapts to these changes to ensure that your care continues to match your needs.¹³ Keeping a migraine diary or using an app and keeping your doctor informed through regular appointments is important for managing migraine. Use the time with your doctor to talk about how you are feeling, how migraine is affecting you, whether migraine treatments are working and any changes in your symptoms or lifestyle. This means you are maximizing the opportunity to get the right care and treatment. Factors such as the severity and timing of your migraine attacks, as well as information on how you feel your treatments are working, can help your doctor to tailor migraine treatment options to best suit you.