Throbbing head pain, sensual sensitivities to light and sound, and nausea sound like you may have symptoms of migraine pain. A headache is described simply as continuous pain in the head. The term migraine represents a recurrent, intense headache that usually affects only one side of the head and is accompanied by symptoms such as visual disturbances, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, extreme sensitivity to sound, light, touch, and smell, and tingling or numbness in the extremities or face.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, migraines are a very common condition, with about 15% of the adults in the U.S. Reporting severe headaches or a migraine. Symptoms of migraine pain aura are extremely prevalent, but unfortunately, this neurological condition is known to be difficult to treat.
While several pharmaceutical agents have been used to relieve migraines, many of the conventional treatments come along with ups and downs with certain unavoidable side effects. The formerly used anesthetic ketamine may present hope if you have migraines that have been especially hard to treat.
Stages of Migraine
Migraines often begin in the childhood, teenage, or early adulthood and progress through the following four stages:
Prodrome
A day or two prior to a migraine, you may notice insignificant changes that indicate an upcoming migraine. These indications include constipation, food cravings, neck stiffness, increased thirst, mood changes from depression to euphoria, increased urination, or frequent yawning.
Aura
People might experience an aura before or during migraines. Auras are temporary indications in the nervous system. These symptoms are usually visual, but they also can include other disturbances. Each of these symptoms typically begins slowly, builds up over several minutes, and lasts for 20 minutes to one hour.
Attack
A migraine attack generally lasts from 4 to 72 hours if left untreated, and the frequency varies from person to person. The frequency of migraines may differ in all victims. Some may experience it rarely, while in others, it may strike a couple of times in a month.
Post-drome
Post-drome is the stage after the attack ends. In this stage, the victim feels drained, confused, and washed out for up to a day. Some people claim they feel elated. Moving the head suddenly might bring on pain again for some.
However, not everyone with migraines goes through all these stages mentioned above.
A Look At Migraine Symptoms Closely
The primary distinguishing symptom of a migraine is severe, throbbing head pain that may feel like a pulse on either side of the head. Although, it may also be felt on both sides of the head in some cases. Migraines can affect the front and back of your head. Some people may feel pain around their eyes or temple and sometimes in their face, sinuses, jaw, or neck. The pain can be so sharp that it interferes with someone's normal functioning. Most migraines last for about a few four hours, although severe ones can last for a couple of days too. Typically, migraines will be accompanied by other symptoms, depending on the stage of the migraine: prodrome, aura, attack, and post-drome. Each of these phases exhibits different symptoms stated as follows:
Prodrome
The prodrome stage—one or two days before a migraine—exhibits subtle symptoms warning of an upcoming migraine, including:
Constipation
Mood changes, from depression to euphoria
Increased urination
Fluid retention
Frequent yawning
Unusual food cravings
Stiffness of the neck
Loss of concentration or focus
Irritability or fatigue
Difficulty speaking and reading
Difficulty sleeping
Nausea
Sensitivity to light and sound
Stiffness in the muscle
Aura
Aura symptoms are usually reversible, and they are related to the nervous system. Following are the symptoms of migraine auras:
Visual disturbances, such as seeing the world as if through a kaleidoscope, having blurry spots, or see sparkles or lines, seeing various shapes, bright spots, or flashes of light
Loss of vision
Sensations of being pricked with pins and needles in an arm or leg
Weakness, numbness, and tingling in the face or one side of the body
Difficulty speaking
Uncontrollable twitching or jerking
Visual disturbances.
Temporary loss of sight.
Weakness on one side of the body.
Speech changes
Hearing noises or music
Attack
The attack is the direct time of severe head pain, and it lasts for 4 to 72 hours. This stage is marked by:
Pain on one side of your head, but can be on both sides.
Pulsing and throbbing headache
Heightened sensual sensitivities to light, sound, and sometimes smell and touch
Nausea and vomiting
Neck pain, stiffness
Depression, giddiness, and/or anxiety.
Nasal congestion
Trouble falling asleep
Post-drome
After the subsidy of intense pain during a migraine attack, you might feel drained, confused, and washed out for up to a day. This stage is characterized by:
Inability to concentrate
Depressed mood
Fatigue
Lack of comprehension
Euphoric mood
Confusion
Elation
Short bursts of pain with head movement
More symptoms
Other than all these symptoms stated above, the following symptoms may be experienced by people with migraines:
Upset stomach and indigestion
Abdominal pain
Loss of appetite
Feeling very warm (sweating) or cold (chills)
Pale skin color (pallor)
Feeling tired
Dizziness and blurred vision
Tender scalp
Diarrhea (rare)
Fever (rare)
How Is A Migraine Different From Simple Headaches?
Migraine is believed to be a pounding, throbbing, and disabling illness among those who suffer from the problem regularly. Unlike a headache, migraine is technically known as a neurological disease due to the fact that many other so-called disabling symptoms accompany head pain. Contrary to a simple headache, it does not come about sporadically and follows a pattern, and it involves accompanying symptoms of migraines. Moreover, migraines can last up to 72 hours, while a typical headache usually goes away within a few hours or even less.
Treating Through Ketamine Intranasal Spray
Ketamine is known as the "club drug" as it is sometimes used illicitly as a hallucinogenic, anesthetic, sedative drug and can also treat depression. But researchers found that it might be effective against painful migraine headaches. Migraine pain is quite a difficult one to treat. But recent research shows that the drug ketamine may provide some comfort to patients for whom other drugs have been ineffective in treating migraines.
Here are the proofs:
In 2012, a study at the University of Chicago Medical Center reported that all 49 patients who were given ketamine infusions over a five-year period showed significant pain reduction. In some cases, the improvement lasted up to three weeks after treatment.
A study at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia involved 61 patients who were given ketamine for three-day to seven-day continuously. Patients who haven't responded to any other therapies showed that ketamine infusions for migraine headaches reduced migraine pain at 3.4 on a 10-point scale at discharge. The study presented in Anesthesiology 2017 claimed that ketamine improved the pain intensity of approximately three of four migraine patients at the end of the treatment period. These patients were those for whom nothing had worked at all.
Other researchers have claimed the usage of ketamine nasal spray to reduce the severity of migraine aura, and flare-ups of migraine breakthrough pain are successful.
Its Uniqueness
Ketamine is used as an alternative to opiate-based pain relievers as it targets N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in the brain, not opiate receptor sites. This makes it a significant medication for treating patients with a history of opiate addiction who are dealing with pain, for instance. Ketamine is a unique medication and is encountering a renaissance in crisis medication at this moment. Ketamine hosts a number of characteristics that make it suitable for our environment, including hemodynamic support, pain relief, and mood swings. It has great versatility.
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