This is not to say that non-drug and alternative therapies do not work rather that we do not know who benefits and by how much and whether there are potential problems. Many straightforward non-drug approaches are clearly heplful and based upon what is known, such as approaches to reduce the ubiquitous stress that seems to plague us one and all. If one is to have drug treatment the choice is between drugs to stop the attack when it is present, so-called acute attack or abortive therapy, and drugs that prevent or reduce the frequency of attacks, often called prophylactics. The scope of the article prevents discussion of preventatives further. The most exciting developments in the treatment of the acute attack of headache have been those driven by a better understanding of a particular class of what are called receptors.
Receptors are small proteins that lie on the surface of a cell.
The fundamental way that nerve cells talk to each other is by releasing chemicals that interact with these small proteins, the receptors, and cause something to happen. So for example, if a nerve cell wishes to turn on another nerve cell it releases a chemical that travels the very short distance between the two cells by diffusion and then interacts with a receptor on the target whose function it is to turn on the target. One such chemical used by nerve cells to transmit information is serotonin and the proteins that sit on the surface of cells that are targets of serotonin are called serotonin receptors. There are thought to be 15 serotonin receptors. Each is distinct in its structure and function.