In a draft report by the British National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), it has been recommended that Botox injections should be used as a treatment option for chronic migraines. It is thought that Botox may help with migraines by blocking pain signals, as well as making muscles relax.

Dr. Giles Elrington, from the National Migraine Centre, said that the success rate proves the injections can have far wider benefits than just erasing wrinkles. "Botox is mostly used to cause partial muscle paralysis, and that's why it works for wrinkles, spasms and stiffness. It's not just a treatment for ladies who lunch," Elrington said. "The funny thing about Botox and migraine is that it's working on sensory pathway, and what it does is not cause muscle paralysis but reduce the sensory traffic coming from the head through to consciousness."

A migraine can be a complicated event, with symptoms that change over hours or even days. Migraines tend to progress through several stages:

1. Prodromal phase before the migraine
2. Aura phase
3. Attack phase
4. Postdromal phase after the migraine

Prodromal Phase: Early Warning Signs- several hours before the migraine begins, and sometimes even the day before, many people with migraines notice unusual sensations. They may feel: either unusually energetic and excitable or depressed, irritable, thirsty, have cravings for certain foods, sleepy with frequent yawning, or have the need to urinate more.

The American Academy of Neurology has released new guidelines for the prevention of migraine headaches.  One goal of releasing the new guidelines is to ensure people who are candidates for preventive treatments actually use them. Studies show that migraine is under-recognized and under-treated. 

Unlike treatments to relieve pain and symptoms of a migraine attack, preventative treatments usually are taken everyday to stop attacks from occurring as often and to lessen their severity and duration. Some studies show that migraines can be reduced by more than half with preventative treatments.