Migraine headache is one form of headache caused by vascular disorders. Migraine headache is caused by a combination of vasodilatation (enlargement of blood vessels) and the release of chemicals from fibers - nerve fibers that surrounds the blood vessels. When a migraine attack, the temporal artery (the artery that runs around the temple) will be widened. This widening will cause stretching of nerve fibers around the arteries thus stimulating these nerve fibers release of chemical substances. This substance will cause inflammation, pain and extraordinary.
Migraine attack generally will activate the sympathetic nervous. What is meant by the sympathetic nerves are nerves that become part of the human nervous system responsible for controlling the body's response to stress and pain. Increased sympathetic nervous activity in the intestine will cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Sympathetic activity would also lead to slow gastric emptying resulting in drug delivery to the small intestine to be absorbed will also be hampered. Absorption of this drug resistance is a problem for people with migraine when given the drug orally. Increased sympathetic activity also reduce blood flow so that the skin will appear pale and cold. Increased neural activity will also result in increased sensitivity to light and votes.pain arise suddenly and can be preceded or accompanied by visual symptoms (vision), neurological or gastrointestinal tract.
Migraines can occur at any age but usually starts at the age between 10-30 years; sometimes disappear after the age of 50 years.
More often attacked the woman.
Migraine headaches are usually more severe than tension headaches.
Migraine prevention requires a comprehensive approach. Treatment with drugs can overcome the symptoms and prevent migraine attacks, but not the main thing. Prevention requires a thorough knowledge of the symptoms, the pattern of attacks, drugs appropriate, and in particular trigger and the factors that aggravate migraine.
THERAPY migraine
Drug therapy is carried out through consultation with your doctor to determine what type of drug to be given, how to use it. Administration of drugs requires strict control. Overuse will lead to chronic head pain that is difficult to cure. Consequently withdrawal symptoms can occur on cessation of drug therapy or symptoms of migraine rebound.
In general, medical therapy of migraine is divided into 2 strategies:
1. abortif therapy, which is to stop the attacks. The drugs used for therapy abortif include: analgesics (paracetamol, aspirin) or anti-inflammatory non-steroidal (ibuprofen, naproxen); serotonin agonist (sumatriptan), ergot alkaloids (ergotamine, methysergide); neuroleptik (chlorpromazine, prochlorperazine); and steroids (dexamethasone, hydrocortisone).
2. prophylactic therapy, which is done to prevent future attacks. Drugs for prophylactic therapy include: anti-depressant (amitriptyline, fluoxetine, imipramine); beta-blockers (propanolol, atenolol, metoprolol); calcium channel blockers (diltiazem, nifedipine, verapamil); NSAID; serotonin antagonists (methysergide, cyproheptadine) ; and anti-konvulsan.
