First, the preventive medication. Fluoxetine, sold as Prozac, has long been a controversial treatment for depression. Now an Italian study shows that it may be an effective prophylaxis for migraine.
Using 52 patients who had no evidence of depression, but did carry a diagnosis of migraine without aura, the Headache Center at the University of Naples conducted a double-blind study. For six months patients received either 20 mg a day of Fluoxetine or a placebo. All of the patients had been off all medications for 30 days prior to starting the trial.
The results showed that beginning in the third month those patients taking Fluoxetine had significantly less pain, while those on placebo had no difference at all during the trial. This is a small test group; however, it gives hope to migraine sufferers who haven't been helped by other treatments.
Another study, this one conducted by the University Headache Center at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, showed that zolmitriptan, sold as Zomig, provided quicker, longer-lasting pain relief for migraine sufferers than sumatriptan, sold as Imitrex.
The 1,043 patients at 61 research centers around the country who took part in this double-blind study took either 2.5 mg of zolmitriptan at the beginning of a migraine, or 50 mg of sumatriptan. After two hours the group on zolmitriptan had experienced relief faster, and they still had pain relief 24 hours later. In all, 6,187 migraines were treated during the course of the study.
I've also run across an interesting item concerning a study conducted at the New York Headache Center. About half of the migraine sufferers involved in this study turned out to have a magnesium deficiency, which Director Alexander Mauskop, M.D. states could trigger migraines.
According to Remedy magazine other studies have shown that 400-600 mg of magnesium a day can reduce the number of migraines by 40-50 percent and lessen the severity of the ones that do occur.
The recommended daily amount of magnesium runs from 50 mg for a baby to 400 mg for a young man, and slightly less for women. After age 50 the recommendation is 420 mg for men and 320 mg for women. The majority of us get enough magnesium in our diet. Deficiencies are quite rare, and normally stem from some sort of chronic intestinal disorder, severe kidney disease, or alcoholism.
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