The migraine attack and its treatments. At the top, a section of the skull lined by the meninges (the dura mater, the arachnoid united to the pia mater by spans, the pia mater, membrane vessel which directly covers the brain). one of the meningeal vessels is enlarged. Below, a cut of the brain with the nucleus of the trigeminal nerve (yellow) which will give, from top to bottom, the ophthalmic nerve, the maxillary nerve, the mandibular nerve. The latter will abandon a meningeal branch (yellow zoom) whose synaptic contact is seen with the 5HT1B receptors (dark green) of the meningeal vessel. The crisis is caused by the activation of the trigemino-vascular system, (brain and neuron of the meningeal branch), inducing on the one hand the release of vasodilator peptides (serotonin (green beads) and CGRP (red-orange beads)), and on the other hand plasma extravasation and inflammation. On the neuron, a 5HT1D receptor (red) targets ergot derivatives as well as the alpha-1 (pink) receptor on the vessel.