The Gathering Storm: Predicting Migraine Attacks
This past summer at the annual conference of the American Headache Society, researchers and specialists discussed a something that we’ve known about for a long time – but still don’t take full advantage of. That is, the premonitory phase of a migraine attack (formerly called prodrome).
Some people call it the first part of a migraine attack – others talk about it as a "warning phase". But whatever you call it, it’s a time when there are symptoms before the full-blown symptoms at the height of an attack.
Researchers are especially interested in the premonitory phase because of the possibility of treating migraine before it gets out-of-hand.
What are some of these early-warning symptoms? Dr. R. Allan Purdy suggests that mood changes are common – sadness or euphoria, for example. Also, yawning, increased sensitivity to light and sound, trouble with concentration, paleness, and fatigue. Sometime patients just "know" that a migraine attack is coming.
Dr. Purdy says,"Migraine is for many people a lightning storm that starts hours or day similar to gathering clouds before the storm, followed by the thunderous pain of the migraine headache. The premonitory phase is well-documented but only recently have scientists considered if migraine can be treated before a patient is in full attack mode."
Some believe that, for example, taking triptans early in an attack can greatly increase your chances of successfully treating the symptoms.
What does Dr. Purdy advise? "Until we fully understand the neurobiology of this phenomenon, our advice to patients is to stay alert to the presence of these symptoms and slow down to allow the body to adjust to what maybe coming if a migraine occurs."
Be aware, slow down, and try treating the migraine early. Have you found that doing these things makes a difference in your symptoms?
via: Many migraine sufferers can predict their migraine attack — may create new treatment possibilities
12 December 2011 @ 4:11 pm
I’ll often have an extended, days-long premonitory phase, in which I’ll get a sensation that my head is stuffed full of wet cotton, I can feel my pulse in my head, I’ll have balance problems, photophobia, sensitivity to metallic sounds, and some visual issues, mild to moderate nausea, plus the concentration problems and pain in the upper back and neck, but the thunderclap itself never comes. Rescue meds are now good enough that I no longer fear the thunderclap, but the days of malaise are days of lost productivity (not fully lost, but still partially lost, with no joie de vivre at all).