Treating Chronic Migraine with Traditional Siddha therapy
Migraine is a a very common disorder among all age groups. It is characterized by recurrent attacks of headache with a sudden onset accompanied by usually unilateral or sometimes bilateral headaches. Chronic migraine, a severe form of migraine is characterized by long term persistent headache that is difficult to treat or fails to respond to standard treatment even after avoiding all migraine triggers. Migraines, is thought to be one of the economic and societal burden to the patients affecting his quality of life, work balance, social activities, and family life.
In Siddha, Migraine is described as Mandai soolai(severe headache) and is classified under kapa diseases. This is a case of 40-year female patient suffering from chronic migraine from last 22 years with c/o throbbing headache in right temporal region which lasted for 4 to 5 hours daily. It was associated with symptoms of nausea, vomiting, nasal blockage, phonophobia, and photophobia. Her daily activities like walking, sleeping and working on computers was getting difficult. The patient was treated with Siddha therapy utilizing stimulation of Varmam points by pressing (Amartthal) technique on OPD basis for 20 sessions with 4 sinus sessions and 2 gut sessions.
The patient experienced no attack of migraine when she returned for a followup after 2 months break. There was considerable reduction in Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score, MigraineInduced Disability Assessment Score, headache, duration & frequency, consumption of pain killers, and improved quality of life indicating the therapeutic efficacy of Siddha treatment.