New drug offers hope to those with severe migraines
This is very cool as far as I&#x27;m concerned.  I suffered from migraines for about 17 years and due to sensitivities, I couldn&#x27;t take most of the usual remedies (triptans).  Migraine is one of those things that is frustratingly misunderstood -- they&#x27;re not just &quot;bad headaches&quot;[0], they come with all kinds of other, fun, symptoms and at least in my case, lasted between one and three days with light and sound sensitivity[1] and nausea to boot.  I could expect to get them in the fall and spring about once a week.  I, literally, wrote a Visual Studio extension to enhance text on my screen when viewed at the lowest contrast&#x2F;brightness setting and purchased a laptop after carefully reviewing the quality of the display and any hints I could find about how dark the screen could be made to go (Asus ended up being excellent at the time).<p>That said, I haven&#x27;t had been hit with migraine symptoms for two years.  If you&#x27;re living with this condition and treatment for it has failed, I <i>strongly</i> recommend changing doctors, and if you haven&#x27;t gone beyond your GP, do yourself a favor and go to a practice that specializes in headaches.  There are more than a few older, lesser-known medicines that successfully treat migraine off-label.  In my case, it&#x27;s a low dose of Depakote[2] -- which is available in generic form.  Outside of my deductible, it&#x27;s under a buck a month, inside it, it&#x27;s under $10.  When it was prescribed to me, there were no references on any of the typical places (WebMD, drugs, et. al) about it being used to treat Migraine.  But when I searched on the medication, there were plenty of anecdotal reports from patients stating that the medication -- which was prescribed for bipolar, usually (another off-label use, it&#x27;s an old medication that was originally prescribed for seizures) -- had resulted in elimination of migraine or a dramatic reduction in the pain[3].  When I last looked, the major sites had it listed as an off-label use.  The best part about the medication (well, other than it working) for me is that my body responds very well to it -- I&#x27;ve had <i>nothing</i> in the way of negative side-effects, though there were a few, surprising, positive ones.<p>Anything dealing with the brain is tricky -- the medications, including the one I&#x27;m taking, have odd and downright scary side-effects.  And there&#x27;s usually a page full of them.  The cause of migraine isn&#x27;t particularly understood, either.  Considering how different symptoms are for this affliction among those who have it, it wouldn&#x27;t surprise me if it&#x27;s found out to be a large collection of different maladies one day.<p>[0] Well, for me, they certainly <i>were</i> bad headaches, too.<p>[1] Sensitivity is the best word - with light, it was anything bright and cold, but with sound it didn&#x27;t have to be loud.  The worst pain would come from nearly any noise emanating from a mobile phone or tablet speaker at any volume level.  It would electrify the pain in my head.<p>[2] Which, it turns out, might have additional benefits: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;10&#x2F;09&#x2F;opinion&#x2F;return-to-the-teenage-brain.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;10&#x2F;09&#x2F;opinion&#x2F;return-to-the-tee...</a><p>[3] I&#x27;d consider it &quot;eliminated&quot; in me.  I get them <i>extremely</i> rarely, and when I do, I can&#x27;t entirely be sure it&#x27;s even migraine based on the symptoms ... I still have sensitivities to light&#x2F;sound but instead of it feeling like the pain was turned up well past 11, I just feel a sort of pressure&#x2F;head-annoyance that&#x27;s difficult to describe.  Honestly, I&#x27;d rather deal with that <i>every</i> day than get a migraine headache even once in a year and I joke (without laughing) that I haven&#x27;t had one in so long that if I got one, I&#x27;d probably have to lay in bed for 3 days.  It&#x27;s been a few years now, though, so my concern about that happening is diminished quite a bit.