Get the headache gun, stat!
Scientists say a magnetic device can stop migraines before they start.
TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL
It's like something out of a video game.
Flashing lights, vertigo, a visual shower of "shooting stars"-- the early warning signs of an impending migraine attack. But before it has a chance to strike, you whip out a special gun and zap it dead with a high-powered magnetic pulse.
That surreal chain of events may very soon become a reality.
A team of Canadian and American neurologists have developed a hand-held transcranial magnetic stimulator (TMS) device that they have found to be effective in eliminating headaches when administered during the onset of a migraine.
"This research is very important because at least one-third of [migraine] patients don't respond to current treatments. There is a need for an alternative," said Yousef Mohammad, a neurologist at Ohio State University Medical Center who presented the findings at the annual American Headache Society meeting in Los Angeles. The device will go through one more clinical study involving 200 patients next month before it is submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval at the end of the year.
How it works
The TMS, which looks like a modified hair dryer, is held against the back of the head after a person experiences the aura phase often preceding a migraine. The aura, as Mohammad describes it, is the "electrical storm" that migraine sufferers feel about an hour before the severe headache, often associated with flashing lights and blurred vision.
The stimulator then sends a strong electric current through a metal coil, which creates an intense magnetic field for about one millisecond. This magnetic pulse generates an electric current in the neurons of the brain and is thought to interrupt the aura before it results in a severe headache.
Canadian Adrian Upton, head of neurology at McMaster University Medical Center in Hamilton, said studies he conducted four years ago showed the device works just as well even after the headache has begun.
"Not only that, but with repeated stimulations we got better results, with many patients saying they experienced fewer headaches. There was a cumulative benefit, although we're still not quite sure why that is," said Upton, who came up with the original idea of using a machine to disrupt the electrical activity as it travels through the brain during a migraine.
Currently, the most common treatment for this powerful type of headache is either over-the-counter analgesics or, for more severe sufferers, a group of drugs called triptans, which mimic the effect of serotonin. But these drugs often come with side effects, Upton said.
However, in his study, he saw up to an 87-percent reduction in pain among migraine patients, which is slightly better than the 74 percent the U.S. clinical trial saw, and there have been no noted side effects.