If you’ve ever thought that others would be more understanding of migraine if they ever had one, Ortho-McNeil, the pharmaceutical company that makes Topamax and Axert, has exactly what you need. The company’s Mind Over Migraine site includes a simulation of a migraine attack, complete with aura and audio representations of a pounding head and intense sound.
In the short video, viewers get a glimpse of what a migraine with typical symptoms — aura, throbbing one-sided nausea, and sensitivity to touch, sound and light — is like. If you send the link to non-migraineurs in your life, you may want to follow up with an explanation of the symptoms you experience and how long a migraine lasts for you. That is, make it as real as possible.
Kudos to Ortho-McNeil for the Mind Over Migraine education campaign, which provides helpful and accurate information about migraine. The company does not hide the campaign’s ties to Topamax and, while Topamax is the only med mentioned it is presented as one of several possible preventives. For more praise for Ortho-McNeil’s migraine advertising strategies, see Education & Advertising Revisited. (I swear they aren’t paying me!)
Another migraine blogger’s perspective is available in The Migraine Simulator Visited on the Headache and Migraine News blog.