Treating migraine pain
When prevention fails, a variety of self-help strategies can help get you through an attack, especially if the attacks are not frequent. But when migraines occur on a regular basis, it’s time to speak with your doctor about a more powerful treatment.Throughout history, migraine sufferers have endured an odd array of alleged remedies. Ancient Romans zapped headache pain with a jolt from a black torpedo fish, or electric ray. In the 13th century, Europeans tried opium as well as rub-on vinegar potions. In 1660, a gruesome procedure dating back to prehistoric times known as trepanation (drilling holes in the skull) was popularized as a migraine treatment by the English physician William Harvey. Even then, doctors understood that swelling blood vessels in the head played a role in migraine pain. Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin) proposed yet another bizarre treatment: spinning the patient in a centrifuge to force the blood from the head to the feet.
Over the next two centuries, other theories about the origins of migraines arose, including the notion of migraine pain as a “nerve storm” within the brain, similar to epilepsy. Today, epilepsy drugs—the anticonvulsant medications mentioned earlier —are among those used to prevent migraines, although they aren’t used for treating a migraine that’s in progress.
