New York Headache blog

Memantine (Namenda) is an Alzheimer’s drug that has been used for the treatment of pain and migraine headaches. This drug blocks the NMDA receptor in the brain, which is involved in the processing of pain messages and...

Cove, a telemedicine startup provides medical care to people suffering from migraines. There are 40 million migraine sufferers in the US, only half of whom seek medical care. The other half may have mild migraines, not have...

Meloxicam (Mobic) is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) which is approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis in adults and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in children older than 2 years...

It is not surprising that when a doctor is tired or hurried he or she is more likely to make a mistake. A new study published in JAMA Network Open provides some hard data on doctor performance as it relates to the prescribing...

A large study confirms previous reports of the beneficial effect of onabotulinumtoxinA (Botox) injections on depression as well as anxiety. In my two previous blog posts from 2011 and 2014 I mentioned reports of cosmetic Botox...

Mefenamic acid (Ponstel) is one the nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and like all other NSAIDs it is being used for the treatment of acute migraine attacks. Mefenamic acid is popular for the treatment of menstrual...

Medication overuse headache (MOH) is not proven to occur from the frequent intake of triptans (Imitrex, or sumatriptan and other) or NSAIDs (ibuprofen, naproxen, and other). However, there is good evidence that caffeine...

Lidocaine (Xylocaine) is an old local anesthetic used by surgeons, dentists, and other doctors to numb parts of the body. Lidocaine drops given into the nostrils were compared to saline drops for the acute treatment of...

On September 12, 2019, Dr. Mauskop spoke on Advances and Controversies in Migraine at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Europe’s largest university hospital. In the top photo Dr. Mauskop with Professor Uwe Reuter of Charité...

At the biennial International Headache Congress held last week in Dublin a group of Italian researchers presented a paper, Relationship between severity of migraine and vitamin D deficiency: a case-control study...

Ketorolac (Toradol) is one of many nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) pain medications used to treat migraine headaches. In a tablet form it is no more effective than ibuprofen, naproxen or any other NSAID, but has...

Levetiracetam (Keppra) is an epilepsy drug that has been reported to help some patients with migraines. However, unlike divalproex sodium (Depakote) and topiramate (Topamax, Trokendi, Qudexy), the evidence for its efficacy in...

An alarming study entitled Association Between Migraine Headaches and Dementia in More than 7,400 Patients Followed in General Practices in the United Kingdom was just published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease...

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been definitively shown to alter brain connectivity and function. We are still enrolling patients in our double-blind study of tDCS for the prevention of migraines, so please contact us...

Migraine with and without aura carries an increased risk of strokes and heart attacks, according to several large studies. Most migraine sufferers are young women and until now there have been no studies looking at...

Many migraine sufferers have gastro-intestinal problems, such as irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, sensitivity to gluten, dairy, and other types of foods. Nausea and vomiting and gastric stasis are common symptoms...

Ketoprofen (Orudis, the branded version, is no longer available) is a prescription nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug (NSAID) without any outstanding features. Just like all other NSAIDs, it is effective for the acute treatment...

Dihydroergotamine (DHE-45) is a very old migraine drug in the family of ergot alkaloids. It is one of the most effective migraine drugs when it is given intravenously and it is often used when patients are admitted to the hospital for...

The annual scientific meeting was held last weekend in Philadelphia. The largest number of presentations was about the CGRP drugs, both monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for the prevention and soon to be approved oral medications...

Ketamine (Ketalar) was officially approved for human use by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1970 and, because of its wide margin of safety, was even administered as a field anaesthetic to soldiers during...

Indomethacin (Indocin) is one of the strongest non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), but unfortunately it is rarely used for the treatment of migraines. It has a higher chance of causing gastro-intestinal (GI) side effects...

Ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, Nuprin, Nurofen, etc) is a very effective migraine drug. Of course, patients with severe migraines tell me that for them taking ibuprofen is like eating candy, but even those patients can get better relief...

Galcanezumab (Emgality) was just approved by the FDA for the prevention of episodic cluster headaches. Galcanezumab is one of the three new drugs recently approved for the prevention of migraines (the other two are erenumab...

Keeping a diary of symptoms has long been considered a part of a successful approach to managing migraine headaches. The diary can help identify potential migraine triggers and contributing factors and a description of specific...

Hydroxyzine (Vistaril) is an underutilized old anti-histamine drug with some unique properties. Just like diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and other older anti-histamine drugs, hydroxyzine causes some sedation. However, it is the...

Researchers at SUNY Buffalo and University of Manitoba studied the effect of exercise on recovery from a sports-related concussion in 103 adolescents. The results were published in JAMA Pediatrics. The participants were enrolled...

Drs. Lisa Yablon, Sara Crystal, and Alexander Mauskop are included in yesterday’s New York Times Magazine supplement, SuperDoctors. According to this publication, “Physicians are selected using a patented multiphase...

Hydrocodone (Vicodin, Lortab, Norco) is an opioid or narcotic pain killer, which should not have much of a role to play in the treatment of migraine headaches. Opioids are much less effective for the treatment of migraines than...

The role of vitamin B12 is underappreciated by many doctors. This week, The Wall Street Journal published a full-page article on vitamin B12 deficiency, which can be of great help to many of the two million readers of this newspaper...

Migraine is rightfully considered a women’s health issue since of the more than 39 million Americans with migraines, 28 million are women. But 11 million is still a lot of men. Unfortunately, men do not seek help as often as...