NeuroNews

How Does A Neurologist Treat His Own Migraines?

As a neurologist that specializes in migraine headaches my patients are always interested to learn that I have migraines myself. I suppose this is one of the reasons I am very passionate about treating headaches and seeing headache patients. It is not an arena a lot of doctors want to get involved in because it can be so challenging. Through my own experiences however, I have come to realize that you really need to study headaches. You really need to develop a program to approach headaches and you really have to apply some expertise.  Primary care physicians just don't have the time to address the challenges that headaches present.

There are a lot of armchair experts out there who will give you advice when you get a headache. "Oh take this, it always works for me or my grandmother always told me to strap a poultice on my head that that's work great." If those things work, that's fine, but I know in my own case I've had headaches since I was 5 or 6 years old and they were misdiagnosed as sinus problems and dental problems and eyeglass problems. In fact, this persisted right through college and medical school. Nobody picked up on the idea that I had migraine headaches.

It wasn't until I was in a neurology residency program at the University of Oklahoma and the director of the program was the President of the American Headache Society and a member on the board of the International Headache Society. He pointed out to me, "Dana, the headaches that you're having meet all the criteria for migraine headaches." Then a light bulb went off and I said "Wait a minute, if that's true, I've been treating my headaches all wrong all this time" throwing over-the-counter medications at the headaches, when actually there are much better prescription medications. Regarding lifestyle, I had been doing things such as sleep deprivation and too much caffeine that would trigger migraines that I needed to modify.

 

Once I knew the diagnosis, then I knew a logical approach to address my headaches and now I'm in charge of my headaches instead of the other way around.

 

Migraines are not the only type of headache people experience, but they are by far the most common. In fact, of all people who go to see their doctor or go to an emergency room with the complaint "I have a headache", over 90% of those individuals have migraines. None have sinus headaches and very few have other types of headaches such as exertion headaches, trigeminal vascular headaches, cluster headaches, and so forth.  The road to gaining control over headaches begins with an accurate diagnosis and that journey is often starts with a headache program at a dedicated headache center. - by Dana Winegarner, DO