A Brief History of Migraines

I am going to depart from my usual poetry to convey a brief history of migraines and treatment. Regular programming will resume shortly.

Headaches have been around as long as man has walked the earth. Headaches are certainly one of the oldest and most catalogued diseases of mankind-noted in every great civilization.

-Trepanation- drilling a hole in the skull to let out "evil spirits" was probably one of the first treatments for migraines. One of the treatments described in Mesopotamian scrolls in 3OOOBC and Egyptian scrolls. 

-15OO BC- The Egyptians also believed that tying a clay statue of a crocodile to the sufferers head would get rid of the headache. 

428-347BC- Plato- one of the greatest thinkers of the western world- describes his belief that headaches occur because people pay too much attention to the body. (Unfortunatly, this view is still with us.}

Hippocrates- Described headaches with aura and nausea, attributed the cause to vapors rising up from the stomach and therefore used to purge sufferers.

Galen- 127-199AD- father of modern medicine- described migraines in detail- and believed they were caused by an imbalance of “yellow bile”, one of the four humours.

-Arabic physicians of the same period used hot pokers stuck in the patients ear to drive away headaches.

-In the middle ages, very little could be done about headaches- there was willow bark and opium, if you were lucky.

1712- term megrim is coined.

-During the age of reason- 17^th and 18^th century- William Harvey described migraines in more detail. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others resorted to laudanum- a mixture of opium and alcohol to cure their headaches. In some cases it led to addiction.

-Lewis Carol- wrote Alice in Wonderland and Through the looking glass after experiencing Migraine Auras and visiting opium dens to cure his migraines, though he did become addicted.

1938- Harold Wolf advocates use of ergotamine for migraines.

As more is known about the brain and migraines- preventatives- mainly anti-depressants are prescribed.

1993- The first triptan hits the market

Today- preventives are still used. Opium and its derivatives are still the frontline treatment for pain, and many stigmas  remain. But, at least we are making progress.