Preventive treatment is typically considered when your headache days are more than 4 days a month, but it all depends on the individual. The goal of preventive treatment is to reduce headache days and/or severity of headache by greater than 50%. There are multiple ways to achieve this goal;

1) Traditional way: using blood pressure medications, seizure medications, or antidepressants are traditional ways. You should start low and go slow with these medications. Why should you try these medications? Majority of insurances require trial and failure of these medications to cover advanced treatments which are more migraine-specific.

Advanced treatments for migraine prevention include CGRP monoclonal antibodies that are highly effective with minimal side effects.

Discuss numerous treatment options with our headache specialist.

Who needs abortive treatments? Everyone deserves it if you have migraine or other headache disorders.

Abortive treatment is something you take/use when headache is coming. The goal of abortive treatments is to provide freedom of pain and its associated symptoms within 2 hours. The duration of severe headache negatively impacts on quality of your life. If you have not achieved this goal, it is time to discuss your headache with a headache specialist.

OnabotulinumtoxinA, also known as Botox® is FDA-approved preventive treatment for chronic migraine, defined as 15 or more headache days per month (of them, 8 or more days are with migraine) for longer than 3 months. Botox has been one of the most effective treatments to reduce migraine days/month by 8-9 days or greater. Please consult with us to find out if you are qualified for this treatment.

There are procedural treatments that can help migraine and other headache disorders. They include peripheral nerve block, SPG block, and trigger point injections. They can be provided for rescue treatment when having severe headache attacks, or for preventive measures in a series.

Would you consider treatment if there is something non-pharmacological and migraine-specific? There are several FDA-approved neuromodulation devices that can help headache by modifying pain signals in different target areas. They include Cefaly, eNura, gammaCore, Nerivio, Relivion, and HeadaTerm.
Discuss more details with our headache specialist.

There are handful of supplements that are known to help with migraine or other headache disorders, which include magnesium, riboflavin, CoQ10, Feverfew, Butterbur, melatonin, etc. Consult with our headache specialist to find out evidence-based nutraceutical treatment for headaches.

Biofeedback, CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), mindfulness, etc are evidence-based biobehavioral treatments for headache, especially for those with co-existing conditions such as depression, anxiety, or PTSD.

SEEDS for migraine or other headache disorders:

SEEDS stands for:

• S ― Sleep well

• E ― Exercise

• E ― Eat healthy

• D ― Dehydration / Drink plenty of water

• S ― Stress management.