RICHARD LIPTON, MD: Stress management plays a role, particularly in people for whom stress is a trigger, so biofeedback and cognitive-behavioral therapy are really quite useful.
ANNOUNCER: But when a migraine strikes, there are ways to manage the pain. And the answer could be as close as your morning cappuccino.
RICHARD LIPTON, MD: Caffeine is well known to relieve migraine headaches and is a common component of combination of ingredient products that are used for migraine.
ANNOUNCER: Caffeine can constrict blood vessels which become inflamed during a migraine. So don't decide to suddenly go cold turkey on coffee.
RICHARD LIPTON, MD: Caffeine withdrawal can be a powerful trigger of migraine and caffeine withdrawal is a major cause of weekend headache in people who sleep through their morning cup of coffee. What I recommend to patients is that they limit their use of caffeine on most days to just one cup of coffee a day, but that they use caffeine, if it's effective for them, as a headache comes on, either in combination with a painkiller or in combination with whatever they're taking to relieve their headache.
ANNOUNCER: Yes, painkillers. There is a high likelihood that you'll be needing one of those.
RICHARD LIPTON, MD: The nonspecific treatments are aspirin, acetaminophen, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs like ibuprofen which gets sold as Advil or Motrin and then combination medications which may include caffeine, may include sedatives, may include other compounds.
On the specific treatment side, the mainstay of acute migraine treatment is now a class of compounds called the triptans.
ANNOUNCER: Getting control over a migraine can mean finding a way to regain control over your own life.
RICHARD LIPTON, MD: The sort of underlying purpose is to give people the tools they need so they can manage their headaches rather than having their lives run by their headaches.
