Migraine Treatment in Sharjah

What is migraine treatment?

Migraine is a common brain condition that causes repeated attacks of headache, often throbbing and on one side, usually with sensitivity to light and sound, nausea, or a wish to lie still in a dark room. Some people have an aura first: flickering lights, zigzag lines or tingling that spreads over several minutes before the pain begins. Episodic migraine means attacks on some days of the month; chronic migraine means headache on most days, with migraine features on many of them.

Migraine treatment works on three fronts at once. It reduces the things that set attacks off, it gives you a clear plan for stopping an attack as soon as it starts, and, for people with frequent or disabling attacks, it adds a daily preventive treatment that lowers how often attacks happen. At Dar Al Kamal Hospital, Sharjah, this plan is built and reviewed by the neurologist in the Neuroscience department.

Who needs it

Migraine treatment suits anyone whose headaches follow a migraine pattern and interfere with work, study, family life or sleep. It is especially worthwhile if attacks happen several times a month, if they last long enough to take you out of your day, if the medicines you buy at the pharmacy help less than they used to, or if you find yourself reaching for painkillers on many days.

If your headaches have yet to be diagnosed, the headache clinic is the place to start: it assesses every kind of headache and confirms whether migraine is the cause. This page is for the next step, once migraine is the working diagnosis.

What happens

Your first visit centres on the story of your attacks: how they start, how long they last, what comes with them and what you have tried. A neurological examination follows. Most migraine is diagnosed from the history and examination alone; where a scan would add useful information, it is arranged through radiology, such as an MRI scan.

Your neurologist then builds a plan with you, usually covering:

• Triggers. Common ones include irregular or short sleep, skipped meals, dehydration and heat, long hours at screens, stress and the hours after stress eases, and hormonal changes around periods. Regular sleep, meals and fluids steady the brain's threshold for attacks.
• Acute treatment. Medicines taken early in an attack to stop the pain and settle nausea, chosen by how your attacks behave and how quickly they build.
• Preventive treatment. A medicine taken every day, on headache days and headache-free days alike, to reduce the number and severity of attacks. Several groups of medicines are used, and the choice depends on your other health conditions, pregnancy plans and side effects.
• Medication-overuse headache. A less obvious fact: taking painkillers or attack medicines on many days each month can itself cause a daily headache. Recognising this pattern and gradually reducing frequent use, with support, often turns daily headache back into occasional attacks.

For selected adults with chronic migraine, botulinum toxin injections are an option, given as a series of small injections around the head and neck at planned intervals.

Preparing for it

Keep a headache diary for a few weeks before your appointment. Note the date and time of each headache, how bad it was, how long it lasted, what you were doing, what you had eaten and drunk, how you slept, where you were in your menstrual cycle if relevant, and every medicine you took for it. The diary is the single most useful document you can bring, because it reveals patterns and shows how often painkillers are being used.

Bring all your medicines, including pharmacy painkillers, supplements and herbal remedies, and any previous scan reports. If you plan to fast during Ramadan, mention it, so medicine timing and meals at suhoor and iftar can be planned to reduce fasting headaches.

Afterwards

Migraine care is a process of adjustment. Preventive medicines take time to show their full effect, so your neurologist reviews your diary at follow-up and changes the dose or the medicine as needed. Keep the diary going; it is how progress is measured. In the UAE summer, drink water steadily through the day, and plan ahead for long flights and time-zone changes when visiting family abroad.

Contact the clinic if attacks become more frequent, if your acute medicine needs repeating on many days, or if a new medicine gives you side effects.

Call emergency services or go to the emergency department straight away for a sudden, severe headache that reaches its worst within seconds or feels like the worst of your life, a headache with fever and a stiff neck, or a headache with new weakness, confusion, slurred speech, loss of vision or a seizure. Sudden weakness or speech change can also be a stroke; see stroke assessment.

Cost and insurance

Most UAE health insurance plans cover neurology consultations and migraine medicines, although some preventive medicines and botulinum toxin injections need pre-approval and are covered only for chronic migraine that meets set criteria. Scans usually need pre-approval as well. Dar Al Kamal Hospital, Sharjah can help you confirm your cover on 06 599 7777.