Stopping Migraine Pain Before It Starts

Anyone who suffers from migraines knows that the pain can be debilitating. They also know that before the migraine, they often experience symptoms that mean an attack is coming. A study in the journal Neurology found that patients who recorded their symptoms in an electronic diary could accurately predict a migraine over 70 percent of the time. This advance warning could someday help patients take preventive measures before the pain strikes. Dr. Cheryl Bushnell, assistant professor of neurology at Duke University Medical Center, says some of the symptoms may be difficult for a physician to identify, but not a migraine sufferer. "A lot of these symptoms are very non-specific, but the patients know their pattern prior to the headache actually starting. They are specific for the patients themselves. They know how they feel before the headache starts." Bushnell says being able to predict an attack could give patients time to take medication or other preventive measures, as directed by their physician. "If patients actually know ahead of time that they're going to have a headache, the new emphasis may be to actually treat the headache pain before it even starts." I'm Cabell Smith for MedMinute.