Dr. Krusz is a recognized expert in the fields of
headache and Migraine treatment and pain treatment
To read more about Dr. Krusz, click HERE.

My husband has been getting migraines since he was a child. However, over the past 3 months or so he has been getting on average of 2 migraines a week which is a lot more than he has ever gotten. He gets nauseous and sometimes vomits from the pain. The neurologist that he has been going to has not been able to lend any helpful advice-- he just continues to give him different medicines to try which are not helping. Any suggestions or advice that you can give will be greatly accepted. Thank you.

REPLY:
Your husband needs to be keeping a Migraine diary to try to identify his Migraine triggers. It's possible that he's encountering new triggers that he hadn't before.

That said, you don't say enough about what medications his doctor has prescribed for us to give you specific advice, but I can advise you of a good route to investigate.

With Migraines that frequent, preventive medications that are taken daily to prevent Migraine attacks are usually indicated. If the doctor has changed preventive medications several times in three months, unless it was because your husband reacted to them adversely, it may be that the doctor didn't give the medications enough time to tell if they were going to work or not. It can take up to three months to tell about a preventive medication.

Is your husband taking any over-the-counter or prescription medications that contain analgesics such as acetaminophen? If so, is he taking them more than two or three days a week? If he is, he may also be experiencing rebound headaches from those medications. See:
~ Arghhhhh! Rebound Headaches!
You have a headache. Taking medications is one of the logical things to do. There is something to consider before you take that medication though -- the dreaded rebound headaches. They're caused by taking medications too often. Sometimes just taking a drug for two or three consecutive days can cause rebound.

Since your husband isn't making progress with his current doctor, it's quite possibly time for a new doctor. What many Migraineurs discover is that even very good family doctors and general neurologists simply don't have the experience or advanced training to treat Migraine disease.

good luck,
Teri Robert

(Answer reviewed by Dr. Krusz)

We have a directory of specialists on our site at:
http://headaches.about.com/cs/headacheclinics/ 

To submit your question, click HERE.
Please be aware that, due to the volume of questions being submitted, we cannot predict how quickly questions will be answered. Please do not ask emergency questions here.

For the archives of previous weeks' questions,
click HERE.