A migraine is a neurological disorder that affects a multitude of people worldwide. Migraine is very common and is often the cause of significant suffering. Migraines can vary widely in any given person. Common migraine is a condition mostly consisting of an intense headache, often with other symptoms such as light sensitivity, sound sensitivity and/or nausea. These headaches are often debilitating, placing an interruption to work/ recreation/ life. Migraine can be preceded by a prodromal (warning) phase (often with blurriness of vision or lights in their vision and occasionally sensory/ numbness in part of the body) and followed by a postdrome (recovery) phase, which may take days. Although headache is often the primary symptom, there are may other symptoms that go along with migraine that are not completely controlled, such as memory disturbance, thinking not being as sharp, mood changes such as depression and irritability, fatigue, muscle stiffness, and difficulty with speech.
Typical migraine aura occurs before or during a migraine and is experienced by about 25% of all migraine sufferers. The experience can be visual, or sensory or result in problems with speaking or word finding. Chronic Migraine is defined as 15 or more headache days per month, of which at least 8 were migraine days. If you are experiencing such issues, contact our neurologist migraine specialist in Sydney to schedule your treatment.
People experiencing episodic migraine have 4-14 migraine days per month. Patients with chronic migraine represent the most severe, and disabled segment of the migraine spectrum.
These frequent headaches don’t always have migrainous features such as pulsating, one sided pain, light and noise sensitivity, and or nausea. Diagnosis by a neurologist specialising in migraines is a vital step in migraine management. For all patients whether it be those who have migraine infrequently or those who have it every day, a neurologist specialising in migraine can often make sequential gains so that the impact of the condition on those living with migraine is as little as possible.
Typical migraine triggers
Many individuals can identify specific triggers for their migraines, although trigger avoidance alone may not be enough to control headaches. Commonly mentioned triggers include lack of sleep, skipping meals, caffeine withdrawal, emotional or physical stress, hormonal changes, or certain foods or drinks, particularly alcohol. For patients who have aura without migraine, the events can be very infrequent and no definite trigger can be determined.
Preventive migraine treatments can be helpful for patients with frequent, severe headaches. The main goal of preventive strategies is to reduce the overall frequency and severity of the headaches.
Migraine Treatment Sydney
As migraines are complex in nature, they often require specialized treatment plans, above and beyond the important treatments that are offered over-the-counter (OTC) at pharmacies or from general practitioners. We understand that no two patients are the same, which is why at Neurology New South Wales every patient receives a tailored treatment plan to best suit their individual needs. Following your initial assessment with our experienced neurologist, your individualised management plan will be provided by our Sydney neurologists with experience in treating patients of all severities.
At Neurology New South Wales, we advise our patients that the key to effective management of an acute migraine attack is early recognition and treatment. As a migraine evolves, its responsiveness to treatment decreases. Medications developed specifically for acute migraine treatment, are far more effective if taken when the headache is still early, and mild to moderate in intensity, rather than later, when moderate to severe in intensity.
Delaying taking acute migraine medication risks not resolving the headache completely, and this can be linked to the early recurrence of further severe headaches.