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Headache

Talking to Your Doctor About Migraines

Summary & Participants

Good communication between a doctor and patient is crucial. Migraine sufferers should prepare to discuss details of their symptoms with their physician to receive the most effective care.

Medically Reviewed On: July 17, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Good communication between a doctor and patient is crucial. Migraine sufferers need to prepare to discuss details of their symptoms with their physician to receive the most effective care.

MARK W. GREEN, MD: When a person with migraine comes to the office, it's very helpful if they've thought about some issues in advance. For example, we're interested in the total burden of migraine, so we want to know, number one, how many days per month did they have any degree of headache. And we mean any degree, even mild, because patients often think we're not interested in the mild ones. And then we want to know how many days a month did they have severe attacks that incapacitate them.

We want to know something about the headache itself. We want to know about the quality of pain. Is it pressing, throbbing, shooting, boring, stabbing? We want to know about the location. Is it in the neck? Is it in the eye? Is it in the temple? Is it in the cheek? We want to know the duration. How long does it last? We want to know the triggers. What kinds of things bring on the attacks?

PAUL-HENRI CÉSAR, MD: Also, make sure you have a record of what medications you've been on in the past and why they had to be stopped, if they didn't work or if you had a side effect, because it helps with future treatment and decision-making.

ANNOUNCER: When preparing for a doctor's visit your list should include the frequency of migraine attacks, the severity, the triggers that set it off, the symptoms, the location of the pain and the duration of the episode.

ALEXANDER MAUSKOP, MD: It is a very good idea for patients to come in with a list of questions for their physician, and on this list there should be questions about possible causes, possible treatments. And as the patient sits in the office it is a very good idea to have the patient write it down or have the physician write it down for the patient, because there are so many aspects of this condition, there are so many potential triggers, potential treatments that it's very hard to remember in a visit, so people are better off recording before the visit and after the visit.

ANNOUNCER: When preparing for a discussion with your doctor, ask about prevention and treatment options.

JULIA SAMTON, MD: There are two ways that we can treat headaches. One is acute treatment or abortive treatment, so that when somebody actually has a headache, they take a medication to stop that particular headache. There's also preventative or prophylactic treatment, which is typically a daily medication or a supplement that can prevent headaches from coming on. So we would be really treating the problem from two angles, one is trying to prevent the headaches from occurring, and secondly when they occur, giving the patient some very aggressive medication to stop it from happening or to keep it from escalating.

ANNOUNCER: Good communication opens the door to good care for migraine sufferers.

ALEXANDER MAUSKOP, MD: The good news is that many people can find very effective relief if they see a physician and if they obtain proper treatment and we have a wide variety of treatments available to prevent and to treat migraine attacks.