Anti-migraine Drugs

by | Mar 1, 2017 | Anti-migraine, Migraine | 0 comments

Anti-migraine medications or drugs are intended to use for the treatment of migraine headaches. There are many anti-migraine drugs available in the market, and nowadays anti-migraine drugs are available online also. These anti-migraine drugs are classified under N02 C, of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification system. There are various examples of Antimigraine drugs such as triptans and ergots etc.

What is a migraine?

A migraine is a disorder of the nervous system. It is characterized by attacks of recurrent headache, sickness, and photophobia (sensitivity to light), etc. A headache or pain usually occurs on one side of the head only. The pain caused by migraine attack can remain for many days. A migraine attack is so terrible that the affected person is not able to even wait for finding a quiet place to get rid of the disturbances in the head.  Some people also suffer from episodic headaches that come and go.

Symptoms of migraine attack:

The Migraine  attack symptoms varies and undergoes through various number of phases such as:

  1. Prodrome phase

It is the phase that occurs a day or two before an actual migraine attack. The person who suffers from migraine prodrome  can notice a few restrained changes that denote the progress of a forthcoming strong migraine attack, here are a few things that you can put into notice while expecting a migraine attack:

  • Depression Constipation
  • Food cravings
  • Hyperactivity
  • Irritability
  • Uncontrollable yawning
  • Neck stiffness etc.
  1. Aura:

It is the next stage known as Aura stage. This phase occurs just before or during migraine headaches. The person undergoing aura attack may feel face visual disturbances like flashes of light disturbing their vision, but while some others might meet some touch emotional disturbances. During an aura attack, the person may in whole suffer from sensory, movement or speech disorders. In most of the cases, people do not undergo any aura phase.

  1. The migraine attack:

This is the phase where people experience is the actual migraine attack. Most people feel the following symptoms during a migraine attack:

  • Scorching/thumbing pain on either side of the head
  • Pulsating Pain of throbbing quality
  • Nausea and restlessness
  • Sensitivity to various sensations like light, sound and smells
  • Blurred vision/ other visual disturbances
  • Dizziness or feeling of fainting
  1. Postdrome:

Migraine attacks ends with this final stage of a migraine. It occurs when a migraine ends and the sufferer is completely drained or washed out. There are many reports that suggest that many people who are frequent sufferers of migraine attack feel euphoric attacks also.

Types of Migraine attacks:

Apart from the different stages of a migraine, there are different kinds of migraine attacks:

  1. A migraine with aura: in such types of a migraine attacks the symptoms begin with character or the warning signs such as flashing  lights
  2. A migraine without aura: in some people there is no aura phase, and hence no warning flashlights are observed in such people.
  3. Migraine aura but no headache: in some people migraine attacks do not involve the severe headache phase, but they can feel the other symptoms such as aura and other symptoms like nausea.

Anti migration drugs

What are the causes of a migraine?

Migraine headaches and attacks have no known definite reasons; only a few hypothetical causes are there. As the exact cause is not known, it is thought that migraine attacks are caused by:

  • Disturbances in Hormonal Balance: In some women migraine attacks may be experienced during the menstrual cycle or before the onset of menstruation as a PMS
  • (premenstrual symptom).
  • Changes in the body due to some emotional triggers like stress, nervousness, and melancholy, etc.
  • In a few cases, some food items may also trigger, too much intake of caffeinated drinks like coffee and tea, alcohol and chocolate consumption may also kick off migraine attacks
  • Various cases of Migraine attacks occur when the person faces stress, sleepiness, thunderous noises, side-effects of a few medicines, etc.

Treatments:

the treatment approach of a migraine sufferer may include the following:

  1. preventative treatment meant to stop the attacks from occurring
  2. Acute treatment that is supposed to be done as soon as the attack occurs
  3. Rescue treatment is done to help the person when the acute treatment does not help a bit.

The migraine headache medication includes a group of medicines that are used to treat migraine attacks and hence these drugs is called cold migraine drugs. The standard prescription migraine medication list with their types are:

  1. Painkillers: such as ibuprofen and paracetamol to reduce a headache
  2. Anti-inflammatory drugs: they work better than the ordinary painkillers and reduce a severe headache or pain. Example: NSAIDs
  3. Anti-sickness/ anti-nausea medications
  4. Triptans: such as Sumatriptan
  5. Ergotamines and dihydroergotamine
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