Who should take a medicine to prevent migraine attacks?
There is no definite rule. For example, you may wish to consider this option if you have: • More than two migraine attacks per month that cause significant disruption to your life. • Less frequent, but severe migraine attacks. • You are using a lot of painkillers or triptan medicines to treat migraine attacks. • Painkillers or triptans for migraine attacks do not work very well or you are unable to take them because of side-effects or other problems. • Migraine attacks are suspected of causing medication overuse headache – see below. Before embarking on preventative treatment, it is probably best to keep a migraine diary for a few months to assess: • How often and how bad your migraine attacks are. • Your current use of medication to treat the migraine attacks. This may help you to decide if preventative treatment is worth a try, and also to help assess if you may have medication overuse headache. See separate leaflet called ‘Migraine – Triggers and Diary’ which includes a migraine dia
