Migraine treatments: what have we learned from neurophysiology?

While several medications for treating migraine are widely utilized in clinical practice, their mechanisms of action at the brain level remain unknown. Several studies have employed different electrophysiological techniques to examine the neurological impacts of various preventive therapies and immediate interventions. Overall, data analysis in patients with episodic migraine indicates that different preventive treatments can lead to a restoration of normal physiological function in a specific electrophysiological test after the clinical improvement caused by the investigated treatment. Therapies for chronic migraine can cause an electrical desensitization, resulting in a pattern similar to that found in episodic interictal migraine. Specific electrical characteristics of the brain in individuals with migraine can be utilized to predict whether therapy will result in a positive or negative change in their clinical condition. Employing various methodologies to investigate distinct brain areas in a single patient and repeated measurements over time can enhance our comprehension of the precise location and timing of changes generated by therapy.