How Botox® Treatment Can Reduce Chronic Migraine Frequency

People experience migraine in different ways, and while there are several treatments out there, it can be tricky to find one that works for you. Botox® injections offer a solution that can provide relief for months at a time, and to find out how it helps, let’s examine more facts about migraine, what Botox does to relieve the pain, and the process of getting treated.

Our team of doctors at Riverhills Neuroscience help the residents of Norwood, Anderson, and Westside, Ohio, and Crestview Hills, Kentucky, with many neurological conditions, and have many solutions for treating migraine problems.

Migraine basics

The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges migraine as one of the 10 most disabling illnesses, affecting 148 million people globally, yet many don’t recognize the severity of the condition. This leads to less than 5% of people struggling with it getting a proper diagnosis or treatment.

This happens partly because people tend to dismiss migraine attacks as merely a headache; they’re dealing with an incurable neurological illness that has head pain as part of its symptoms. While a migraine has four phases, not everyone experiences all four in a given attack, and they include:

Prodrome 

This often happens 24 hours before the pain phase, causing mood changes, sleeping problems, and issues with focus or concentration.

Aura

A group of symptoms affecting motor, sensory, and speech functions, which can present with signs such as ringing in your ears, vision changes, and muscle weakness.

Attack

Also called the pain phase, this part of the cycle comes with light, sound, and smell sensitivity, severe pain (often on one side of the head), nausea, and vomiting. The aura and attack phase can happen simultaneously.

Postdrome

Lasts about two days and causes you to experience focus issues, fatigue, neck stiffness, and other symptoms similar to a hangover.

How Botox helps

The botulinum toxin protein in Botox injections acts as a neurotoxin to relax muscles and nerves, and has both medical and cosmetic applications in everything from treating crossed eyes and an overactive bladder to reducing wrinkles and creases on your skin. 

In helping with migraine issues, these injections work to prevent pain signals from reaching the brain, so the injections are placed in key areas where overactive nerves can lead to the pain phase of a migraine attack.

How it's done

Rather than receiving one or two injections in the head to target all the areas where nerves become overactive in migraine attacks, many shots are done, with a recommended overall dosage of 31 injections using 155 total units. After determining the key areas where head pain occurs with migraine, the injections are done in those key areas in each session.

Sites for injections can include areas between the shoulder and neck, the back of your neck, the base of your skull, and the back and middle of your head, as well as your forehead and temple. Once the Botox has been applied, injections are done every three months to reduce pain and lower the frequency of head pain from migraine problems.

If you want to see how well Botox injections can work to reduce your migraine problems, make an appointment online or by phone with our team at Riverhills Neuroscience today.