But the class of migraine medicines that hit the market in the 1990s called triptans remain the best or only treatment option for many patients.

WSJ: Fresh Target in Hunt for a Migraine Cure

In fact, treatments are proliferating, including over-the-counter pain relievers for mild cases and a class of drugs called triptans typically used to stop migraine pain.

WSJ: Stopping a Migraine Before It Starts

Triptans, opioids, ergots or combination analgesic medications on 10 days a month or more or paracetamol, aspirin or an NSAID (anti-inflammatory such as ibuprofen) on 15 days a month or more.

BBC: Headaches and painkillers

In the mid-1980s, Peter Goadsby, a neurologist and headache specialist at the University of California San Francisco, and his colleagues found that CGRP is released in migraines and that triptans decreased CGRP action.

WSJ: Fresh Target in Hunt for a Migraine Cure