Migraine Headaches: Probable Causes and Effective Treatments :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Migraine Headaches: Probable Causes and Effective Treatments During my first year of High School, I began getting frequent headaches, about three or four each week, which included symptoms of nausea, increased sensitivity to light and an intense throbbing pain localized to one side of my head. Immediately, my parents and friends noticed a change in my behavior. Shortly after the onset of these headaches, my academic performance suffered as the intense symptoms became debilitating. With their enduring persistence, I visited a neurologist who diagnosed me as suffering from migraine headaches. The symptoms were clearly indicative of classic migraines, which the neurologist informed me were usually genetic. Therefore, upon questioning me about my family history of neurological disorders, he did not find it surprising that my maternal grandmother had been plagued with severe headaches since her early twenties. Later, he explained to me that the precise cause of migraines was yet unknown but that there were some very effective treatments available t hat would prevent the onset of the migraines. After trying several different medications, we found a successful preventative drug, called Norpramine. Six years later, still on the medication, I only suffer from an intense migraine about two or three times per month. However, searching for the correct medication was the most painful and helpless process of my life, an experience that I would never care to relive. Before I had settled on Norpramine, I was using medications that were only effective in relieving the symptoms after the onset of a headache, one of which was a painful injection that had a variety of uncomfortable side effects. Over the years, I have done some superficial research on migraines, finding it perplexing that a disorder that affects millions of individuals is so difficult for scientists to pinpoint. Thus, I decided to focus this paper on the probable causes of migraine headaches and examine some of the possible treatments that work well for many individuals, including me. Migraine headaches affect an estimated 11 to 23 million Americans, women more commonly than men, and include symptoms like throbbing or pulsating pain and nausea (1). The first documented records of migraines originate from 3,000 B.C, when a popular treatment involved drilling holes in the skull to release evil spirits (1). Several scientifically based theories about the cause of migraines have recently developed, although the exact mechanism is still unknown. One of the current, highly supported theories suggests that migraines occur when there is a specific chemical imbalance in the brain, which in turn results in changes in the blood vessels (2).