New York Headache Center

Clopidogrel, which is also known as Plavix, is a drug used to prevent strokes and heart attacks.  It works by preventing platelets from sticking together and causing a blood clot which can block a vessel in the heart or brain.  Platelets also tend to become sticky in patients during a migraine attack, which is how this drug might help migraine sufferers.  A British physician reported that a small number of patients given this drug stopped having migraine headaches after many years of unsuccessful treatments.  A large study is currently under way to prove that this drug in fact works better than a placebo. 

German researchers showed that acupuncture relieves back pain significantly better than combination of medications, physical therapy and exercise.  They enrolled over one thousand patients with chronic back pain in a study that compared traditional Chinese acupuncture (where acupuncture sites selected based on pulse diagnosis and other traditional methods and needles are placed along specific meridians on the body) with sham acupuncture (needle are placed superficially and outside the traditional points) and conventional approach.  It turns out that 10-15 sessions of both traditional and sham acupuncture treatments were better than conventional treatment, providing relief in 47.6%, 44.2% and 27.4% of patients respectively.  This large study clearly proves the efficacy of acupuncture in back pain, regardless of the acupuncture technique. Similar results have been found in headache patients. 

Botox has been shown to relieve migraine headaches in another two studies published in Headache.  One study compared the efficacy of Botox and an epilepsy drug, Depakote and found them to be equally effective.  However, Depakote caused more side effects, which resulted in more patients taking Depakote dropping out of the study.  The second study was done in patients who had difficulty complying with daily preventive medications.  Half of them were injected with Botox and the other half with saline water.  Neither the doctor nor the patient knew who received which treatment (double-blind study).  The impact of migraines on patients’ lives was significantly improved by Botox.  These two studies by leading headache specialists provides additional proof that Botox is effective for the relief of migraine headaches.