Headache treatment is an art as well as a science. Many potential medications are available. The patient's health care provider must analyze each person carefully to devise a program that often combines both drug treatment and non-medication forms of therapy.
Most patients use some form of symptomatic treatment for migraine.
It is important to use these medications as early as possible in a migraine attack. They are aimed at treating the severity and duration of an attack and can help the migraine sufferer return to normal activity as soon as possible. This form of therapy without preventative therapy is useful in patients with relatively infrequent migraines - at most a few per month. It also is often necessary to use some symptomatic treatment in patients who still have breakthrough headaches despite using prophylactic drugs. Commonly used abortive medications include analgesics , serotonin receptor medications, triptans , ergots , and antiemetics .