Back to Blog

Acute treatment for migraine attacks

Migraine is such a common disease, you’d expect all health professionals would know the best treatments and how to manage acute attacks.Unfortunately, this often isn’t the case. Migraine is commonly undertreated and mistreated. For example, we often hear from members in our community that they had not been told about or offered triptans for migraine attacks. Triptans are a migraine-specific treatment, unlike generic pain relievers such as aspirin and paracetamol. They’ve been available sin...

Phases of a migraine attack

We’ve become more familiar with the phrase ‘Migraine is more than just a headache’ but what does that mean, exactly?In one sense, it means that the type of headache experienced during a migraine attack is usually more severe than the garden-variety tension-type headache. A migraine headache is described as throbbing, stabbing, pulsating, pounding, unbearable and often starts on one side of the head. Tension-type headaches are generally milder, experienced as a tight band across the forehea...

A positive response from Pharmac

On 20 January 2023, we sent Pharmac a letter, signed by all four of New Zealand’s headache specialists, raising concerns about its slow handling of the funding application for erenumab (Aimovig), the (in)appropriateness of their review process and how this would affect the application we made in November 2022, for the funding of galcanezumab (Emgality).On 15 February 2023, we got a reply. That’s a big step up from the speed at which they’re reviewing erenumab. It was signed off by the Chie...

What’s wrong with Will Jordan having 'a migraine'?

What a week! No sooner did the wrath of Cyclone Gabrielle move away from Aotearoa leaving devastation in its wake, than Kiwis were hit with the news that All Blacks and Crusader Will Jordan will miss the start of the Super Rugby season due to “diagnosis of a migraine-related condition.”Coach, Scott Robertson explained further: “It is a migraine, it’s not concussion based.” (NZ Herald, Stuff)"It is a migraine.'It's a common phrase, but for us, it clangs, discordant with the keen empathy...

Feeling judged or misunderstood by your partner because of migraine

It’s bad enough living with a chronic neurological condition that causes unpredictable attacks of pain, nausea, fatigue and brain dysfunction for no apparent reason. It’s even worse when the people you love and live with are not supportive when these attacks happen.Migraine is one of those diseases that is commonly misunderstood, with people believing that it is ‘just a headache’ and underestimating the disability associated with migraine attacks, especially when these are frequent. That...

The three blobs of our logo

If you’ve ever wondered why there are three overlapping blobby ovals in the Migraine Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand (MFANZ) logo, we have a variety of explanations.The main phases of migraineStrictly speaking, there are four main phases of migraine: the prodrome or premonitory phase, the aura phase, the headache phase, and the post-dromal or hangover phase. But although aura is a ‘classic’ feature of migraine, not everyone experiences it, only 20-30% of people who have migraine disease. S...

Pharmac goes around in circles on Aimovig funding application

If you know anything about innovations in migraine treatment, you would have heard of the new migraine-specific medications for prevention of migraine – calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) monoclonal antibodies. They’ve been the first real hope for people with treatment-resistant migraine in many years. They don’t work for everyone, but for some people, they've been life-transforming, providing a significant reduction in frequency and severity of migraine attacks.In Aotearoa, there are ...

Holidays start – and along comes a migraine attack

It’s a familiar story – the end of the year, finishing up at work, rushing around to prepare for Christmas, packing up for a holiday away, then finally, you can relax and enjoy a break.  Except… just as you reach for that book you’ve been planning to read for weeks, you feel the first tentacles of a migraine attack reaching for you. Instead of lying on the beach in the sun, you end up lying in a dark room, while everyone else is swimming and running around having a fun time. Wh...

The power of a crystal-clear day

Migraine attacks come in phases for many people. They start with a constellation of possible symptoms, from fatigue, neck stiffness, yawning, sensitivity to light, sound, touch and smell, food cravings, mood changes and blurred vision. These can last for an hour or two or even a few days. Then, in 20–30% of people with migraine, an aura can occur, most commonly causing visual disturbances, such as flashing lights, black spots and loss of vision, and strange shapes and colours. After this, come...

Emgality advocacy toolkit launched

At the end of November, we submitted a consumer application to Pharmac to fund Emgality (galcanezumab) for the treatment of chronic migraine. Read our press release here To coincide with our application, we’ve developed an Emgality advocacy toolkit. The toolkit is designed to help people in New Zealand support our application and raise awareness of migraine and the vital need for improved access to modern migraine medications. Basically, we in the migraine community need to make more noise abo...

Migraine Foundation submits application to Pharmac to fund Emgality

Press release Migraine Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand has submitted a consumer application to Pharmac to fund Emgality (galcanezumab) for the treatment of chronic migraine. Emgality is one of several monoclonal antibody medications that act to block a protein, calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), which is involved in triggering migraine attacks. CGRP monoclonal antibodies are the first medications developed specifically to prevent migraine. Prior to their development, the only preventive med...

Managing Your Migraine: Book review

Dr Katy Munro from the National Migraine Centre in the UK published a book in 2021 called Managing Your Migraine. It’s easy to read and informative and should be on the to-read list of every person with migraine. As those of us with migraine know, migraine disease is a debilitating, neurological condition. It’s not just a headache, and it’s not something a couple of paracetamol and a lie down will fix. It takes a full migraine toolkit of medications, lifestyle strategies, diet, exercise, s...

The Painful Truth: Book review

The Painful Truth: The New Science of Why We Hurt and How We Can Heal. By Dr Monty Lyman. This is not a book about migraine, but about the nature and purpose of pain. However, anyone trying to deal with migraine, especially chronic migraine (the author prefers the term ‘persistent’ to ‘chronic’, as chronic can infer permanence, which is both disheartening and incorrect) would find pearls in this book. The punchline is what the author calls ‘the painful untruth’ – the bogus belief t...

New Zealand health survey data – a decade to be released

This is what people were asked in the 2013/14 New Zealand Health Survey, the last time the Ministry of Health collected data on the prevalence of migraine in Aotearoa New Zealand. There are some obvious problems with this question. What if you have migraine attacks but have never been to a doctor about them? One of the best surveys of migraine in the world, from the US, estimates that only 61% of people with migraine disease have a medical diagnosis.(1)  What if you have migraine attacks bu...

Biofeedback: an underused migraine treatment

There’s a treatment for migraine that is safe, has no side effects and may work as well as a preventive medication – but it’s not a pill. (3)  That treatment is biofeedback. Biofeedback is a method of training people to control physiological functions, including heart rate, temperature, breathing rate and muscle tension. This is done using sensors that monitor these functions – e.g. a band around the chest to monitor respiration, electrical sensors on muscles to measure muscle contr...

I tried Aimovig for six months. Here's my verdict

Calcitonin gene-related peptide or CGRP for short. That’s the target of most of the new medications developed to treat or prevent migraine attacks, the first medications that were specifically developed for migraine, based on basic science research on migraine pathophysiology. CGRP monoclonal antibody medications (mabs) are the big ticket new preventive treatments. Previous medications used to prevent migraine were developed for other conditions, and only incidentally found to have some use in...

Anxiety and migraine

Do you have trouble relaxing? Are you unable to control or stop worrying? Feel nervous, anxious or on edge?  These were the most common symptoms of anxiety found in a study of people with migraine and mood disorders, that found anxiety was strongly associated with migraine, even more so than depression. (1) Anxiety is more common in people with migraine (compared to people without), but it may be a circular relationship. Anxiety and stress can trigger a migraine attack (either as anxiety in...

Emgality Frequently Asked Questions

In September 2022, the second calcitonin gene-related monoclonal (CGRP) monoclonal antibody medication called Emgality (galcanezumab) was launched in New Zealand. Since the launch, we’ve received many questions about who can prescribe Emgality, which pharmacists stock it and how it’s given. We’ve put together these Frequently Asked Questions to help. If there’s a question that’s not answered here, feel free to email us: info@migrainefoundation.org.nz and we’ll add it to the list. Who...

The link between migraine and depression

For Mental Health Awareness Week, we want to highlight that people with migraine disease are at greater risk of some mental illnesses, especially depression and anxiety. It’s a sad truth that migraine and depression travel together. If you have migraine disease, you're more likely to experience depression than those without it, especially if you have chronic migraine (15 or more headache days a month). And if you have depression, you're more likely to experience migraine attacks. Most people w...

Few people on a benefit for migraine in New Zealand

If you’ve ever wondered how many people in Aotearoa New Zealand are on a benefit with migraine disease, we have some answers, but many more questions. We asked the Ministry of Social Development for the number of people with migraine on a Supported Living Payment (SLP-HCD), or a Jobseeker - Health Condition or Disability (JS-HCD) payment. The SLP-HCD is for people who are unable to work on a long-term basis because of a health condition or disability. The JS-HCD payment is for people who can o...

Medication-overuse headache

How do you balance taking acute migraine medications as soon as you feel a migraine attack starting, without taking too many to tip you into medication-overuse headache? Solving that problem is enough to bring on a headache. Medication-overuse headache, also called medication adaptation or medication-induced headache, is something many people with migraine struggle with. Medication-overuse headache is the commonly used term, even though it blames the person for using the medication too much, ins...

Gepants – more migraine drugs we’re missing out on

The new vogue of migraine medications are those that block calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), a small protein found in the nervous system involved in the processing of pain.  The role of CGRP in migraine was confirmed by a study that injected CGRP into people with migraine, which provoked migraine attacks. Since then, the search has been on for drugs that target CGRP and treat migraine. The first of these were the gepants, small molecules designed to block CGRP receptors, where CGRP wo...

More migraine data needed in New Zealand

New Zealand has a migraine data issue. The issue is the lack of data on migraine in New Zealand.  We rely on estimates from the international Global Burden of Disease study to give us an idea of how common migraine is, because we don’t have up-to-date national statistics. Data from the New Zealand Health Survey We do have a way of collecting these statistics, through the New Zealand Health Survey, a large nationwide survey run by the Ministry of Health that asks about health conditions, r...

Migraine podcasts

I’m a big fan of podcasts. Having a long list of podcast episodes to listen to is often the best motivation to get me outside and exercising, and they’re also great during a migraine attack if I need some time on the couch but still want to feel productive. I’ve collated a list of my favourite migraine podcasts, and hope that however migraine affects your life, you’ll find this list helpful. Heads Up Podcast This podcast is produced by the National Migraine Centre in the UK. It’s curre...

Dealing with bad or unsolicited advice about migraine

How many times has someone found out I have migraine and they immediately offer me their solution.  I’ve been told: You should get your eyes testedYou should try acupunctureYou should try Chinese medicineYou should try ayurvedic medicineYou should try these special supplements, that my wife has a business inYou should go to a chiropractorYou should go to an osteopath People want to help, they really do (except maybe the guy pushing his wife’s supplements, who got offended when I politel...