The Effectiveness of Diet Restriction in Elderly with Migraine

INTRODUCTION: Migraine type headache is a type of pain with a high socioeconomic burden that limits the activities of daily life of individuals of all ages. The pathogenesis is not fully understood. There are a lot of migraine’s trigger factors and foods are one of them. The purpose of this study was to specify the effect of migraine triggering on the migraine attacks prevention in the elderly population. METHOD: The study consisted of patients over the age of 65 with a diagnose of migraine without aura according to International Headache classification. Thirty-one migraine patients with migraine attacks were included in the study. Triggering foods were expelled from the diets of migraine patients. This diet and pre-diet 2 months after the application, the frequency of attack within a month, attack duration and visual analog scale (VAS) pain intensity, the number of analgesics and triptans used were recorded. RESULTS: A total of 31 patients (8 male and 23 female) were evaluated. In the second month after dieting, the frequency of attack, attack duration, pain severity, and analgesic and triptan counts were statistically significantly lower than the pre-treatment level (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Results of the study; In migraine-aged elderly patients, it can be concluded that migraine attacks may be an effective and reliable treatment in reducing the number of analgesics and triptans used in migraine attacks.