Botox for Migraines is safe and effective. But you might still be wondering if it’s painful. The answer is: it depends on where you get it. For example, Botox for Migraines in the front of your head can be uncomfortable as it can cause your eyes to droop. Other areas are fine when treating migraine pain with Botox but you may still experience mild soreness at injection sites or headaches from a few hours up to 12 hours later. After your treatment begins to work, these side effects decrease and may even go away completely.
Read on to learn more about Is Botox For Migraines Painful
Is Botox For Migraines Painful
In the quest to find relief from chronic migraine, you might try just about anything. After all, migraine attacks can be painful and debilitating, and they can greatly affect your quality of life.
If you experience migraine symptoms on 15 or more days each month, you have chronic migraine. Medications for migraine exist to either address acute symptoms or prevent attacks from occurring.
One such preventative therapy is Botox, an injectable drug made from a purified protein called Clostridium botulinum. When injected into your body, it blocks certain chemical signals from your nerves, causing temporary paralysis of your muscles.
Though Botox gained popularity as a wrinkle reducer, researchers recognized the potential of Botox for treating medical conditions, too. Today it’s used to treat problems such as repetitive neck spasms, eye twitching, and overactive bladder. It’s also used to prevent chronic migraine.
How is Botox used to treat migraine?
Botox treatments can help reduce symptoms of migraine attacks, including:
- nausea
- vomiting
- sensitivity to lights, sounds, and smells
Botox is injected in areas involved in headache and migraine pain. It affects the nerve endings and blocks the release of chemicals involved in pain transmission.
After you receive Botox injections, it may take 10 to 14 days or longer for you to experience relief. In some cases, you may not experience any relief from your symptoms following your first set of injections. Additional treatments may prove more effective.
A 2018 studyTrusted Source showed that Botox used to treat chronic migraine was effective, safe, and well tolerated over ta 3-year period. The study showed a significant reduction in mean monthly headache days.
A 2019 review of studiesTrusted Source also showed that Botox injections are effective in helping to prevent chronic migraine after 3 months of therapy.
Botox injection sites for migraine
Treatment for chronic migraine prevention usually includes 31 injections with 5 units per injection. Injection sites are likely to include:
- upper bridge above the nose
- forehead
- temples
- back of the head
- neck
- upper back
Side effects of Botox for migraine pain
Complications and side effects of Botox treatments are rare. The most common side effects of Botox injections are neck pain and stiffness at the injection site.
You may develop a headache afterward. You may also experience temporary muscle weakness in your neck and upper shoulders. This can make it hard to keep your head upright. When these side effects occur, they usually resolve on their own within a few days.
In rare cases, Botox toxin can spread to areas beyond the injection site. If this happens, you may experience:
- muscle weakness
- vision changes
- difficulty swallowing
- drooping eyelids
- sharply raised eyebrows
To reduce your risk of serious side effects and complications, always make sure Botox is prescribed and administered by a trained healthcare professional. Look for a board certified physician or a neurologist with experience using Botox for chronic migraine.
How is Botox for migraines different from cosmetic Botox?
The Botox used for migraines and the Botox used for cosmetic procedures is actually exactly the same. “Basically, young and middle-aged women were getting [Botox] for cosmetic purposes, and that’s the most common person that has migraines, and that’s how they figured out it was helpful,” Ravitz tells me. Women were getting Botox for aesthetic reasons and happened to notice relief from their migraine symptoms, and doctors began looking into it as a direct treatment. In fact, women are disproportionately affected by migraines — about 85 percent of chronic-migraine sufferers are women, and the condition affects 28 million in just the U.S.
The only difference between the two procedures is that with Botox for migraines, they may do a few more shots in areas where the pain is experienced. Personally, I usually get between 30 and 40 shots, concentrated mostly on the right side of my head where the pain occurs, at the base of my skull, and on my neck and shoulders, where I tend to hold tension, as doing so can cause a migraine. Botox for migraines can have the same aesthetic effect that cosmetic Botox has, which kills two birds with one stone for people who may desire that effect. “We do it along wrinkle lines and keep it symmetrical,” says Ravitz, which explains the erasing of lines and temporary plumping of wrinkles.