New York Headache blog

Jan Mundo, who is a Somatic and Headache Coach, and Bodyworker just wrote a book, The Headache Healer’s Handbook, which was published by the New World Library. I’ve known Jan and her wonderful work with headache patients...

Baclofen (Lioresal) is one of several muscle relaxants that have been tested for the treatment of migraine headaches. The testing was not very rigorous – baclofen was subjected only to one open label trial. The trial done by an...

Butalbital, a short-acting barbiturate, is one of the three ingredients in headache drugs such as Fioricet, Fiorinal, Esgic and their generic equivalents. Fiorinal and Fioricet derive their name from the Montefiore Headache Clinic, where they...

Headaches that occur during sexual activity tend to elicit fear and embarrassment. Embarrassment is why most people are not aware that this is a fairly common condition – you would not share your experience at a party. The fear is...

Anxiety is one of the conditions comorbid with migraines – if you have migraines you are 2-3 times more likely to suffer from anxiety as well. The relationship is bidirectional, meaning that if you have anxiety, you are more likely to develop...

On June 1, I injected myself with erenumab (Aimovig). I still had to take sumatriptan for an incipient migraine on June 2 and June 5. On Thursday, June 7, I had a glass of red wine (pinot noir) with dinner and had no headache. Last night...

The FDA has approved 4 different types of botulinum toxin for various therapeutic indications. The oldest, the most popular and the only one approved for the prevention of chronic migraines is onabotulinumtoxinA, or Botox. I’ve been...

Atenolol (Tenormin) is a blood pressure medicine in the beta blocker family. Atenolol is considered to be equally effective in preventing migraines to propranolol (Inderal), which was the first drug to be approved for the prevention of...

As expected, we’ve been overwhelmed by the demand for the new preventive therapy for migrianes, erenumab (Aimovig). It offers a unique and highly effective therapy with virtually no known side effects, at least so far. My patients are...

Medical marijuana appears to be very effective for the treatment of pain, according to a new study just published in the European Journal of Internal Medicine. The study was conducted by researchers at the Soroka University Medical...

A new and very promising preventive treatment for cluster headaches being developed by Eli Lilly may become available in the near future. We hope that the FDA recognizes that this is a relatively rare condition with few available...

Propranolol (Inderal) and other blood pressure medications in the beta blocker family are effective for the prevention of migraines. In a previous post 4 years ago I mentioned a report of 7 patients whose migraines were aborted with...

Yesterday the FDA approved the long-awaited breakthrough drug for the prevention of migraines. It promises to provide relief to two out of three migraine sufferers with minimal side effects. It should become available in a couple...

Calcium channel blockers, a family of drugs used to treat hypertension, are sometimes used for the prevention of migraine headaches. Anecdotal reports suggest that verapamil (Calan) can treat migraine with aura and other neurological...

Amitriptyline (Elavil) and other drugs in the family of tricyclic antidepressants have been proven to be very effective in the preventive treatment of migraine headaches and many other painful conditions. Several double-blind, placebo-controlled...

Only about 20% of migraine sufferers experience an aura. The most common type of aura is visual and it typically consists of partial obscuration of vision with colorful zigzags and blind spots spreading over half of the visual field of both...

Alpha-lipoic acid is one of the natural supplements included in this list of 100 migraine drugs. According to a study by Magis and colleagues, a daily dose of 600 mg of alpha- lipoic acid (known as thioctic acid in some countries) was...

A group of American and Israeli researchers published a study in the journal Brain, suggesting that hits to the head, even those that do not cause an overt concussion, contribute to the chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)...

Acetylsalicylic acid, also known as aspirin, is a truly miracle drug. It is an excellent pain and fever-reducing medicine and prevents several types of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Aspirin has been proven to be a very...

Amantadine (Symmetrel) is a medication that has U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for use both as an antiviral and an antiparkinsonian medication. However, it is not an effective antiviral drug and is no longer used for...

AbobotulinumtoxinA (Dysport) is a product that is very similar to OnabotulinumtoxinA (Botox), but only Botox is approved by the FDA for the treatment of chronic migraines. Botox is the oldest of the four neurotoxins that are being...

Many migraine sufferers do not find acetaminophen (Tylenol) to be strong enough to treat migraine headaches and it does not have an official FDA approval for migraines (ibuprofen does). However, it is one of the most popular...

Almotriptan (Axert) belongs to the family of triptans, which are, by far, the most effective drugs for the acute treatment of migraine headaches. The first drug in this category, sumatriptan (Imitrex) was introduced in 1992 as an injection...

This is the first in a 100-part series of blogs on various migraine drugs. Yes, we do use that many drugs to treat migraines, although only a handful are FDA-approved for migraines. Many of these drugs are in the same family...

Several drugs are often used to treat symptoms of concussion, including an epilepsy drug, gabapentin (Neurontin), amitriptyline (Elavil) and other antidepressants. A recent study by doctors at the University of Utah in Salt Lake...

Last month Allergan reported that their oral CGRP receptor antagonist, ubrogepant was safe and effective in the acute treatment of migraine attacks (see my post). Today, results of a phase 3 trial of a similar drug, rimegepant were...

The first of the four CGRP monoclonal antibodies developed for the prevention of migraines is expected to be approved by the FDA in the next 2-3 months. The other three should be approved within a year. All four will be given...

The news headlines are filled with stories of professional football players suffering from brain damage, but you do not to have to participate in sports to sustain a concussion – it is an everyday occurrence. In the US, in 2013 there were 2.8 million...

Lidocaine is an effective local anesthetic that is injected for dental procedures, minor surgeries, as well as nerve blocks, including nerve blocks for migraines, cluster, and other types of headaches. Since it is a numbing medicine, lidocaine...

TMJ syndrome is a disorder which often coexists with migraine and tension-type headaches and is characterized by pain in the jaw joint and surrounding muscles. It is very common, but the exact cause remains unclear. In many...