Will botox help your migraines?

It depends.  If you have chronic migraines with more than 15 (!) headache days per month and at least 8 of those headaches being a migraine, YES! It will help you.  If you have fewer than 15 headache days per month, it may not help decrease your pain-free days.

In one study botox was shown to reduce the number of migraine days per month by two days compared with placebo (sugar pills).  Botox is FDA approved for treatment of chronic migraines.  This approval may give you a better chance at your insurance paying for this treatment, but of course, that is never guaranteed. 

There was a metaanalysis (a bunch of research studies with the results collated together) with nearly 4200 patients which showed that botox reduced the number of migraine days per month for 3.1 days in patients with chronic migraines.

What are the drawbacks to botox?  Botox is delivered by injections which inherently has some discomfort.  But, otherwise no serious adverse effects were noted.  Mild symptoms were arm muscle weakness, eyelid drooping, neck pain, and injection site pain.