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DEALING WITH AN ATTACK OF MIGRAINE IN AN INDIAN SETTING
O P Kapoor
Hon. Visiting Physician, Jaslok Hospital and Bombay Hospital, Mumbai, Ex. Hon. Prof. of Medicine, Grant Medical College and JJ Hospital, Mumbai 400 008.
Recently, Saridon has been banned because of the rare possibility of occurrence of serious toxicity. What will migraine patients, who are addicted to these tablets do during an attack?British Medical Journal recently discussed the problem of treatment of headache during the attack of migraine which affects nearly five million people in UK. Different ways of dealing with these attacks were mentioned and are as follows:
1. Some people ignore these attacks.
2. Others take simple analgesics.
3. Some retreat to a quiet darkened room.
4. Some sufferers need sleep to recover.
Ergot preparations by themselves are notorious to cause ergot headaches either due to excess doses or withdrawal. All pain relieving tablets are noted to lead to kidney damage in the long run.
What do we advise the patients to do during the attack? Even abroad, besides allopathy, spiritual therapy is being practised to raise the threshold of pain. In India for years and years the following methods were being used to get relief from an attack of migraine.
Use of number of balms and other agents which are rubbed on the forehead and the neck. They are very effective.
"Champi (kneading of the head") is not exactly massage. During this procedure, someone presses caressingly on some of the tender points (which are known to be present during the headaches), which may include the temporal and other arteries on the forehead and the head. Day by day it has been realised that migraine attacks are either precipitated or associated with tension muscle contraction headaches. More the reason that this type of therapy will work better in such type of patients because of the pressure and the loving manner of the sibling who is doing it. Thus the pressure therapy can give relief.
Tieing a tight handkerchief around the forehead and the head seems to be very effective in number of patients. It is possible that it works by inhibiting the release of pain producing factor.
All the above Indian methods have following advantages.
1. They hardly cost any money.
2. Side effects or anaphylaxis do not occur.
3. They can be applied life time without any fear of kidney damage.
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