How do we know who has our best interests at heart?

We migraine bloggers are well aware of major migraine-related headlines. If we don’t catch these big stories firsthand, a reader or a friend or a family member (or someone who plays all three roles) will alert us to the updates. This is a version of people’s well-meaning game “Have you tried…?” that’s a little easier to handle.

Lately there was a lot of hubbub surrounding a finding that ibuprofen was found to be an effective treatment for migraine headaches.

Seems just yesterday I read about how I shouldn’t take over-the-counter drugs for my pain if I have prescription medication.

I do understand much of the science behind effective migraine medications (I am a medical document editor by trade, after all), but I also understand that one of drug companies’ central missions is to make lots and lots of cash. You can understand why I occasionally doubt that, when they give warnings about using cheap over-the-counter drugs in lieu of their overpriced medications, they truly have my best interests at heart.

This morning I was on day three of my routine menstrual-related migraine and decided to pop two ibuprofen since I had Imitrex the prior two days. Guess what? My mild migraine (headache and all the side effects) was gone within an hour.

I have a question for all of you out there who have access to over-the-counter and prescription medicines: How do you decide what drug to take when? How do you determine what kind of drug the headache deserves?