Abortive therapy for headache treatment

At the first sign of a headache, the first thing you want to do is get rid of the pain. Abortive therapy can help stop a headache at its earliest signs.

Many different medications are used in abortive therapy for headache treatment to stop symptoms before they worsen. These include non-specific treatments such as anti-inflammatory medications or a combination of analgesics or migraine-specific therapies such as triptans or ergotamines. In some cases, anti-nausea medications are used at this early stage of a headache. These medications are available as tablets, nasal sprays, patches, injections or suppositories. Based on your diagnosis, your headache specialist will work with you to determine your most effective abortive therapy for headache treatment.

Sometimes these abortive medications are overused and may lead to a condition known as medication overuse and rebound headache. Your doctor can help diagnose this and can recommend modifications in treatment such as changing abortive medications, detoxifying from overuse of medicines or initiation or changing preventive strategies.