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Propranolol (Inderal) and other blood pressure medications in the beta blocker family are effective for the prevention of migraines. In a previous post 4 years ago I mentioned a report of 7 patients whose migraines were aborted with...

Yesterday the FDA approved the long-awaited breakthrough drug for the prevention of migraines. It promises to provide relief to two out of three migraine sufferers with minimal side effects. It should become available in a couple...

Calcium channel blockers, a family of drugs used to treat hypertension, are sometimes used for the prevention of migraine headaches. Anecdotal reports suggest that verapamil (Calan) can treat migraine with aura and other neurological...

Amitriptyline (Elavil) and other drugs in the family of tricyclic antidepressants have been proven to be very effective in the preventive treatment of migraine headaches and many other painful conditions. Several double-blind, placebo-controlled...

Only about 20% of migraine sufferers experience an aura. The most common type of aura is visual and it typically consists of partial obscuration of vision with colorful zigzags and blind spots spreading over half of the visual field of both...

Alpha-lipoic acid is one of the natural supplements included in this list of 100 migraine drugs. According to a study by Magis and colleagues, a daily dose of 600 mg of alpha- lipoic acid (known as thioctic acid in some countries) was...

A group of American and Israeli researchers published a study in the journal Brain, suggesting that hits to the head, even those that do not cause an overt concussion, contribute to the chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)...

Acetylsalicylic acid, also known as aspirin, is a truly miracle drug. It is an excellent pain and fever-reducing medicine and prevents several types of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Aspirin has been proven to be a very...

Amantadine (Symmetrel) is a medication that has U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for use both as an antiviral and an antiparkinsonian medication. However, it is not an effective antiviral drug and is no longer used for...

AbobotulinumtoxinA (Dysport) is a product that is very similar to OnabotulinumtoxinA (Botox), but only Botox is approved by the FDA for the treatment of chronic migraines. Botox is the oldest of the four neurotoxins that are being...

Many migraine sufferers do not find acetaminophen (Tylenol) to be strong enough to treat migraine headaches and it does not have an official FDA approval for migraines (ibuprofen does). However, it is one of the most popular...

Almotriptan (Axert) belongs to the family of triptans, which are, by far, the most effective drugs for the acute treatment of migraine headaches. The first drug in this category, sumatriptan (Imitrex) was introduced in 1992 as an injection...

This is the first in a 100-part series of blogs on various migraine drugs. Yes, we do use that many drugs to treat migraines, although only a handful are FDA-approved for migraines. Many of these drugs are in the same family...

Several drugs are often used to treat symptoms of concussion, including an epilepsy drug, gabapentin (Neurontin), amitriptyline (Elavil) and other antidepressants. A recent study by doctors at the University of Utah in Salt Lake...

Last month Allergan reported that their oral CGRP receptor antagonist, ubrogepant was safe and effective in the acute treatment of migraine attacks (see my post). Today, results of a phase 3 trial of a similar drug, rimegepant were...

The first of the four CGRP monoclonal antibodies developed for the prevention of migraines is expected to be approved by the FDA in the next 2-3 months. The other three should be approved within a year. All four will be given...

The news headlines are filled with stories of professional football players suffering from brain damage, but you do not to have to participate in sports to sustain a concussion – it is an everyday occurrence. In the US, in 2013 there were 2.8 million...

Lidocaine is an effective local anesthetic that is injected for dental procedures, minor surgeries, as well as nerve blocks, including nerve blocks for migraines, cluster, and other types of headaches. Since it is a numbing medicine, lidocaine...

TMJ syndrome is a disorder which often coexists with migraine and tension-type headaches and is characterized by pain in the jaw joint and surrounding muscles. It is very common, but the exact cause remains unclear. In many...

An electric stimulation device, gammaCore has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an acute treatment of pain associated with migraine in adult patients. gammaCore is a hand-held device that stimulates...

A recent article in the New York Times by the health columnist, Jane Brody, Trying the Feldenkrais Method for Chronic Pain, described her very positive experience with the Feldenkrais method. Then, at about the same time a patient...

Feverfew (tanacetum parthenium) is one of the oldest herbal remedies for the treatment of migraine headaches. It was first mentioned as a treatment for inflammation 2,000 years ago. Feverfew is a member of the daisy family and all...

Survivors of terrorist attacks are four times more likely to suffer from migraines and three times more likely to suffer from tension-type headaches, according to a study just published in Neurology. The researchers evaluated 213 of 358...

Deficiency of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is the second most common deficiency in migraine sufferers after magnesium. Fully one third of migraine sufferers are deficient in CoQ10, according to a study by Dr. Andrew Hershey and his colleagues...

Magnesium deficiency is found in up to 50% of migraine sufferers, 40% of those with cluster headaches, 45% of the elderly diabetics, and in a high percentages of people with other chronic diseases. Magnesium has been shown to...

A new report by doctors at UC Irvine describes successful treatment of 9 children aged 8 to 17 with migraine headaches using Botox injections. It may sound surprising, but unfortunately children also suffer from chronic migraines. Chronic...

A group of highly respected researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine just published their second article in the journal Headache on the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risks in migraine sufferers. Not surprisingly, they have...

Two landmark studies on an entirely new type of treatment for migraines have been just published in the New England Journal of Medicine. One of the reports describes a phase 3 trial (final phase that can lead to the FDA approval), which...

Excessive consumption of marijuana can lead to bouts of severe nausea and vomiting, which in medicalese is called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS). With many states legalizing medical and recreational marijuana, there...

Psychological factors play a major role in migraines. This is not to say that migraine is a psychological disorder – we have good genetic and brain imaging studies confirming its strong biological underpinnings. The divide between biological...