A new device that delivers magnetic pulses through the skull and to the brain has shown great success in treating debilitating migraine headaches in clinical tests. The results of preliminary tests of the new technique were revealed at the annual meeting of the American Headache Society in Los Angeles on Thursday.
The new technique is known as transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS. In clinical tests, TMS reduced the severity of migraines or prevented them altogether according to the findings of a preliminary study.
Dr. Yousef Mohammad explained how TMS works. 'Migraine starts because of neuronal hyperexcitability, during which patients see flickering lights or other manifestations of an aura. The hyperexcitability phase is followed by fatigue and depression of neurons, which spreads throughout the brain, and the result is a pounding headache,' Dr. Mohammad told Reuters. 'We hypothesized that if we could interrupt this cortical spreading depression by administration of TMS, we could abort the headache,' he said.
Eight migraine sufferers participated in the preliminary study. They were given a device that they could use when they started experiencing the aura that heralds the beginning of a migraine. By using the device to deliver two pulses to the back of their heads approximately 30 seconds apart, they were able to reduce or eliminate the pain of a migraine headache.
The eight subjects suffered a total of 31 migraines during the study. In 81 percent of those cases, they were headache free within 2 hours if they used TMS.
While preventative medications are permitted with TMS, patients cannot take painkillers or triptan drugs for treating a migraine if they are using the new procedure.
TMS is still in the early stages of testing. If it continues to be successful, it could offer relief for millions of migraine suffers throughout the world.
