Headache and Migraine Glossary: Abortive Medication

Definition: A medication taken to "abort" or stop a Migraine after it has begun. Abortive meds work in the brain to actually stop the Migraine attack or cluster headache at it's source as opposed to merely masking the pain phase as pain medications do. Abortive medications include Imitrex - aka Imigran (sumatriptan), Zomig (zolmitriptan), Maxalt (rizatriptan), Amerge - aka Naramig (naratriptan), Axert (eletriptan), Frova (frovatriptan), Axert (eletriptan), DHE-45, Migranal.