How are migraines treated?
Migraine has no cure. But your migraines can be managed with your doctor’s help. Together, you will find ways to treat migraine symptoms when they happen, as well as ways to help make your migraines less frequent and severe. Your treatment plan may include some or all of these methods. Medicine. There are two ways to approach the treatment of migraines with drugs: stopping a migraine in progress (called “abortive” or “acute” treatment) and prevention. Many people with migraine use both forms of treatment. Acute treatment. Over-the-counter pain-relief drugs such as aspirin, acetaminophen, or NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like ibuprofen relieve mild migraine pain for some people. If these drugs don’t work for you, your doctor might want you to try a prescription drug. Two classes of drugs that doctors often try first are: • Triptans, which work by balancing the chemicals in the brain. Examples include sumatriptan (Imitrex®), rizatriptan (Maxalt®), zolmitriptan (Zomig®), a
