Prevention of Migraine Attacks

Preventive treatment is an important component of migraine management, aiming to reduce the frequency, painfulness and duration of migraine attacks and to increase the effectiveness of treatments used during an attack. Another goal of prevention is avoiding medication overuse headache, a form of rebound headache that can result from overusing pain medications and lead to chronic daily headache. Preventive treatments for migraine include medications, nutritional supplements, lifestyle changes and surgery, and are generally recommended for people who have headaches more than two days a week, who cannot tolerate the medications used for acute attacks, or whose severe attacks are not easily controlled.