Category Archives: Migraine

Chronic Back Pain and Headache Often Occur in Same Patient

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PainRelief.com Interview with:

Arani Vivekanantham, MBChB, MPhil
University of Warwick
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust
Coventry, UK
Centre for Epidemiology Versus Arthritis
University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

ni Vivekanantham, MBChB, MPhil University of Warwick University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust Coventry, UK Centre for Epidemiology Versus Arthritis University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study?

Response: Around one in five people have persistent low back pain and one in thirty have chronic headaches. People with low back pain are usually managed by musculoskeletal services whilst those with headaches are typically treated by primary care doctors and neurologists. There may be particular challenges in treating people with both disorders because of the risk of medication overuse headache in people taking regular pain killers for back pain.

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Migraine: Pain Relief from BotoxA May Last At Least 6 Months After Injections Stopped

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Jason Ching MD
Department of Neurology
George Washington University School of Medicine
Washington, DC

headache migraine

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study?  What are the main findings?

Response: The clinical course of chronic migraine patients who respond positively to serial botulinum toxin A (BotoxA) injection therapy and eventually discontinue treatment has not been well-studied. Optimizing the duration of treatment would be beneficial from both a cost and safety perspective.

In our study, we found that over 80% of our chronic migraine patients who achieved our stipulated stopping rule experienced no clinical worsening or associated need to resume prophylactic therapy for at least 6 months following discontinuation of BotoxA.

A greater number of BotoxA treatments required to achieve the stopping rule and the presence of baseline chronic daily headaches for over 6 months duration were factors correlated with clinical deterioration.

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Migraine Linked to Poor Sleep and Sleep Apnea

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PainRelief.com Interview with:

Dawn C. Buse PhD Clinical Professor of Neurology Albert Einstein College of Medicine New York City

Dawn C. Buse PhD
Clinical Professor of Neurology
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
New York City

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study?

Response: Sleep is essential in the regulation of a wide range of homeostatic functions.  Dysregulation of sleep process may be triggers for migraine attacks and increase the risk of migraine disease chronification.  Migraine is comorbid with a range of medical, neurologic, and psychiatric comorbidities that may exacerbate the disease, complicate treatment, and reduce health-related quality of life.  These comorbidities include sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, insomnia, circadian rhythm (i.e., sleep-wake) disorders, and sleep movement disorders.

The Chronic Migraine Epidemiology and Outcomes (CaMEO) Study is a longitudinal study that used a series of web-based surveys over 15 months to assess migraine symptoms, burden and patterns of healthcare utilization among people in the US population.  Validated questionnaires were used to assess many comorbidities.  Migraine can be classified based on the number of headache days per month into episodic migraine (<15 headache days/month) and chronic migraine (≥15 headache days/month).

In this cross-sectional analysis of data from the Chronic Migraine Epidemiology and Outcomes (CaMEO) Study, we assessed sleep apnea and poor sleep quality in a US population based sample of 12,810 people with migraine.  Respondents were stratified by episodic (11,699) and chronic (1,111) migraine and by body mass index (BMI).

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Headache an Immense Public Health Problem, for Rich and Poor Countries

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PainRelief.com Interview with:

Lars Jacob Stovner MD PhD Professor of Neurology Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology Head of the Norwegian Advisory Unit on Headaches, St. Olavs Hospital Trondheim, Norway

Prof. Stovner

Lars Jacob Stovner MD PhD
Professor of Neurology
Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science
NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Head of the Norwegian Advisory Unit on Headaches,
St. Olavs Hospital Trondheim, Norway

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? 

Response: The study focuses on prevalence and burden of migraine and tension-type headache in the Global Burden of Disease project from 2016.

Previous analyses has shown that migraine is the second most disabling disorder in terms of years lived with disability. This particular analysis shows that more than 1 billion people suffered from migraine in 2016 and 1.9 billion from tension-type headache, and it gives estimates each country and different world regions.

Headache is particularly burdensome in young and middle-aged women, but the impact is also quite marked also in men, children and elderly.

There is considerable variation between countries, but the burden is relatively stable over time (from 1990), and there is no obvious relation to the socioeconomic level of the country.  Continue reading →

FDA Approved Emgality Offers New Hope For Migraine Prevention

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Gudarz Davar, M.D., Vice President
Neuroscience Platform Leader
Eli Lilly and Company

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this announcement?  How big a problem is migraine in the US?  Who is primarily affected? 

Response: Migraine is a disabling, neurologic disease that affects more than 30 million American adults. According to the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey, the total unadjusted cost associated with migraine in the U.S. is estimated to be as high as $56 billion annually. People with migraine can miss out on significant moments in their lives—birthdays and anniversaries—and there remains an unmet need for treatment options that can help patients achieve significant reductions in the overall frequency of migraine attacks.

Emgality (galcanezumab-gnlm) was approved by the FDA on Thursday, September 27, for the preventive treatment of migraine in adults. Emgality is a humanized monoclonal antibody indicated for the preventive treatment of migraine in adults that binds to CGRP ligand and blocks its binding to the receptor, which is believed to play a role in migraine. It is offered as a self-administered, once-monthly subcutaneous injection. Emgality offers new hope to people living with migraine as one of the first medicines developed specifically for the prevention of migraine.

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