A migraine diary is a helpful tool to identity your unique migraine triggers and to track the effectiveness of your current migraine treatment plan. This information can help your healthcare provider to diagnose and manage migraine symptoms, and adjust and update your treatment protocol. You want to keep track of what’s going on when your pain begins, exposure to possible triggers leading up to the attack, symptoms during the attack, and treatment effectiveness.
Items commonly included in a migraine diary include:
- Date, day of the week, and time of day of the attack
- Activity at onset of migraine attack
- Migraine intensity or pain level
- Length of migraine duration
- Symptoms during migraine (e.g., aura, vision changes, nausea, dizziness, etc.)
- Exposure to possible triggers (e.g., hormone changes, diet, hydration, medication, weather, smells, lighting conditions)
- Treatment taken
- Treatment effectiveness
Keeping track of symptoms you experience during the migraine attack, like aura, vision changes, nausea, dizziness, etc., can help your healthcare provider determine the type of migraines you are experiencing. Tracking the length of the migraine attack and the severity using a scale of 1-10 will allow your provider to determine how significantly your migraines are impacting your daily life. Tracking any interventions or treatments, like medication, as well as how much the treatment helped (scale of 0-5) and if there are any side effects will allow your provider to adjust or change your treatment options to improve effectiveness.
Your diary will not only help identify your triggers, but it will help you and your doctor work together to evaluate patterns and assess how well your treatment and strategies are working for you.
Here’s an example of what your diary might look like:
