Migraine treatment

Abstract

The goal of the Canadian Migraine Forum was to work towards improving the lives of Canadians with migraine by reducing their migraine-related disability. This paper focuses on migraine treatment in its many aspects, including symptomatic therapy of individual migraine headache attacks, prophylactic drug therapy, non-pharmacological interventions, and diagnosis and management of symptomatic medication overuse. Many patients with difficult migraine experience significant frustration in trying to obtain the help they need from our current medical system. Although many symptomatic medications are available for use in migraine, migraine specific medications are still underutilized. An ideal migraine preventative medication does not yet exist, but currently available preventatives do have utility, and are also thought to be underutilized. Behavioral approaches to migraine management as an adjunct to medication therapy show promise, but the availability of programs to bring these to patients is limited, and more research is needed on their efficacy. Symptomatic medication overuse in migraine sufferers remains a large problem in Canada, and better defined treatment paradigms and programs are needed both to prevent and to treat this problem. Such programs should include strong elements of public, patient, and health professional education. A potential solution to some of these problems may be to develop treatment approaches to migraine similar to those that are being developed for other chronic medical disorders. For patients with severe migraine, these would optimally include multidisciplinary teams so that the multiple facets of migraine management can be adequately addressed.