Though migraines are often misunderstood and frequently undiagnosed, effective treatment for migraine sufferers exists, according to the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
“It used to be that people with migraine were largely ignored and had to sequester themselves off someplace for hours or even days,” said Dr. Juline Bryson, a neurologist and headache specialist at the Winston-Salem, N.C., medial center, in a statement. “But people who have migraine don’t have to suffer. We have treatments that work, and even better ones are in the pipeline.”
Those treatments can help the more than 38 million Americans who suffer from migraine, including 28 million women. Women suffer from migraines at a rate of three times that of men. Migraines lead to $36 billion in health care and lost productivity costs per year in the United States, according to the nonprofit Migraine Research Foundation,.
“There are some good medications, but not everybody responds to them,” Bryson said. “Fortunately, we have a whole new class of medications formulated specifically for migraine that are probably going to be released in the next year or two, which should change the face of migraine treatment strategies as we know them.”
Treatments are not just linked to medications. Other strategies include sleep studies, exercise, relaxation techniques, physical therapy, psychological counseling and lifestyle changes.
