- Migraine affects more than 1 billion people globally every year.
- There is currently no cure for migraine headaches, which can have a major impact on a person’s quality of life.
- Researchers from Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Spain recently presented research showing the drug atogepant helps prevent headaches in people with episodic migraine who have had no success with other preventive drugs.
- Scientists also reported the drug helps reduce how many migraine days a person has per month and reduces the amount of medication they need to take.
There is currently no cure for this type of severe
headache, which can have a profound effect on a person’s
Although there are medications that can help with migraine, they do not always work for every person.
Now, researchers from Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona,
Spain, have presented
research at the
American Academy of Neurology’s 75th annual meeting showing the drug
Additionally, scientists say the drug helps reduce how many migraine headaches per month study participants had and how often they need to take medication to stop a migraine attack.
What is episodic migraine?
Migraine is a neurological condition causing recurring headaches — usually on one side of the head — with an intense throbbing or pulsing sensation.
Other symptoms of migraine include:
- nausea and/or vomiting
- dizziness
-
neck pain -
vision changes causing an “
aura" with wavy or flashing light -
increased sensitivity to
light and/or
sound - fatigue
-
mood changes
If a person experiences up to 14 migraine headaches in a month, they have
what’s known as
episodic migraine. If they have 15 or more headaches each month, that is known as
Migraine headaches can be caused by a variety of triggers, including:
-
hormonal changes - chemical imbalances in the body
-
diet -
emotional triggers -
medications -
environmental triggers
Headaches impact life quality
Dr. Vernon Williams, a sports neurologist, pain management specialist, and founding director of the Center for Sports Neurology and Pain Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles, told Medical News Today is it not uncommon to see people with episodic migraine who have had no success with preventative drugs.
“Some patients respond well to a number of different preventive medications. Others will have side effects or difficulty with just poor efficacy from preventive medications,” he explained.
Williams said it is important to have preventative medications for episodic migraine headaches as they can significantly affect a person’s ability to function and diminish their quality of life.
“If the migraines are negatively impacting someone’s function, quality of life, their ability to do the things they’d like to do, want to do, and need to do, it’s very helpful to have an agent like this that can prevent them and reduce the frequency of the headaches,” he said. “So, maybe instead of getting four or five headaches a month, eight or 10 headaches a month, they are getting one headache a month or one headache every other month.”
“You can see how that would have an effect on people’s performance at work, their abilities to do the things they need to do at school, care for their family, (and) interact with loved ones,” Williams added. “It’s all about improving people’s ability to do the things they’d like to do, need to do, want to do without the difficulties associated with these episodic migraine attacks that can prevent them from being able to be fully present in their lives.”
CGRP inhibitors and episodic migraine
According to
Dr. Medhat Mikhael, a pain management specialist and medical director of the non-operative
program at the Spine Health Center at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical
Center in California, doctors currently treat migraine headaches with
a variety of medications, including
However, he said, they were not always effective.
Mikhael told
Medical News Today that with the class of
“We saw… not only less migraine days, (but also) a lot less
severe (migraine headaches that) can be treated with some
Mikhael explained what makes CGRP inhibitors effective at both preventing
and stopping migraine headaches is that by binding the receptor of the
CGRP, you prevent a cascade of reactions that cause the
“What is good about (CGRP inhibitors) is it does not cause any vasoconstriction of the
Evaluating CGRP Inhibitors
In the new study, researchers evaluated the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of atogepant — a type of CGRP inhibitor — for the prevention of episodic migraine in people who had previously failed two to four types of oral preventative medications.
The 309 participants in the study either received atogepant or a placebo for 12 weeks.
Upon analysis, the research team reported that participants who took atogepant had an average of four fewer days of migraine per month from the start of the study to its conclusion, compared to only two fewer days in those who took the placebo.
Additionally, scientists found those who took the drug showed improvement in how often they needed to take medications to stop a migraine attack, compared to those who took the placebo.
Researchers reported the most common side effects were constipation and nausea.
“People who thought they may not find a way to prevent and treat their migraines may have hope of finding relief with a tolerable oral easy-to-use drug,” said Dr. Patricia Pozo-Rosich, a study author and director of the Headache and Neurological Pain Research Group at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital. “This treatment was safe, well-tolerated, and effective for people with difficult-to-treat migraine.”