Non Drug Management of Migraine

Some patients with migraine headache can be managed with certain non pharmacological (non drug management) approaches. It is always better to manage any disease if it can be managed without need of any medication, as all medicines have some side effects (may be minor and non significant) and some of the side effects may be major, which itself become problematic for the patient. Since some patients of migraine headache can be managed without any medication it is always advisable to try to manage patients with migraine (except patients with acute severe migraine) without any drug. If migraine headache is not very serious all the patients of migraine should be tried with non pharmacological approaches available for management of migraine headache.

Migraines can be caused by some trigger factors and identification and avoidance of these trigger factors can be beneficial to the patient. A regulated and healthy lifestyle is very helpful. Healthy lifestyle should include a healthful diet (preferably balanced diet keeping in mind the local food habits and customs and traditions), regular exercise (preferably aerobic exercise), regular sleep patterns, avoidance of excess caffeine (excess tea and coffee) and alcohol, and avoidance of acute changes in stress levels.

Individualized non pharmacological measures:

The non pharmacological measures have to be individualized and the measures which suit an individual with migraine should be used, as these can be very much beneficial and less costly for the patient with migraine headache. One measure which benefits an individual may not be beneficial to the other and the approach which suits an individual should be used.

Patients with migraines do not encounter more stress than headache-free individuals, the main problem with migraine patients seems to be the over responsiveness to stress. Since the stresses of everyday living cannot be eliminated, migraine patients should learn how to be less responsive to everyday stresses. To reduce responsiveness to stress, yoga, meditation, hypnosis, and conditioning techniques such as biofeedback should be tried. For most patients, these techniques may work best as an adjunct to pharmacotherapy. Non pharmacologic measures can not prevent all migraine attacks and when these measures fail to prevent an attack, pharmacologic approaches are taken for migraine treatment to abort an attack of migraine as well as prophylaxis of migraine headache.