edit: I’ve modified the title to include important context

Orr, an associate professor at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine, worked in collaboration with researchers at the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute and the Barrow Neurological Institute at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

The findings are published in “Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain” and update the 2016 guidelines of the American Headache Society for the management of migraine attacks in emergency departments.

The research recommends occipital nerve blocks should be offered in emergency rooms to treat acute migraine attacks.

The use of intravenous Prochlorperazine which blocks dopamine receptors in the brain is recommended but is not readily available. That leaves the greater occipital nerve block where a local anesthetic and a corticosteroid are injected near the greater occipital nerve.

“The occipital nerves at the base of the skull bring in pain signals to the same area of the brain where pain signals from all over the head are coming in. By anesthetizing these nerves, patients get relief,” said Orr.