New drugs can help in the fight against migraines.

The pain of her migraine headaches is so intense that Fort Worth, Texas, artist Kathy Suder once threw herself headfirst into a snowbank in Colorado, burying her face in the snow to get some relief.

``Headaches sound so minor,'' Suder says. ``Migraines shouldn't be called headaches. They are more like brain explosions, completely incapacitating.''

Anyone who has experienced a migraine knows they are unlike ordinary headaches. In a migraine, severe, often throbbing pain starts on one side of the head and usually stays there, although it can shift to the other side the next time a migraine occurs. The pain may cause nausea, vomiting, chills or sweating, cold hands, shaking and sensitivity to light and sound. Attacks can last several minutes or several days; most last four to six hours.

For years, there was little relief for the 26 million Americans _ 18 million of them women _ who suffer from migraines. But for two to three years, the mysteries surrounding…