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In addition to an injection, tablet and a nasal spray, sumatriptan is being tested in two other formulations. No, it is not an inhaled form, which I just posted in my previous blog (dihydroergotamine inhaler), but through a skin patch and by...

Trials of an inhaled version of an old migraine drug show surprisingly good results. The drug is dihydroergotamine and in injectable from is considered to be one of the strongest migraine medications. It is often used intravenously to treat severe...

Lower facial pain during a migraine attack occurs in 9% of migraine patients, according to a recent report published in Cephalalgia by German researchers. One of the 517 migraine patients they looked at had lower facial pain as the leading...

Imitrex and Topamax are two migraine medications that recently lost their patent protection and became available in a generic form, under the names of sumatriptan and topiramate. Many patients are concerned about the quality of generic products...

Occipital nerve stimulation appears to be a promising new treatment for migraine and cluster headaches. Phase II trials performed by Medtronics, the manufacturer of one type of stimulator, have been positive. This stimulator requires implantation of...

Headache diary plays an important role in the management of headache patients. Drs.McKenzie and Cutrer from the Mayo Clinic compare patient recall of migraine headache frequency and severity over 4 weeks prior to a return visit as reported...

A pharmacogenetic study by Italian researchers discovered that absence of a certain gene can predict therapeutic response in migraine patients who are treated with riboflavin (vitamin B2). Pharmacogenomics has been a very promising field of...

Vertigo is a common symptom in patients with migraine headaches. It appears that obverse is also true – migraine is very common in patients with vertigo. A study just published in Cephalalgia looked at 208 patients with benign recurrent vertigo...

Botulinum toxin, which most people know as Botox is produced by a bacteria – Clostridium botulinum. This bacteria actually produces 7 different type of this toxin: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Botox is botulinum toxin, type A, while another...

Dr. Rami Burstein of Harvard University and his colleagues discovered the way to predict who is going to respond to Botox injections. Patients who have pain that is constricting, crushing, or “imploding” with pressure going from outside in and...

Unfair teachers can cause headaches in adolescents, according to an Italian study published in the journal Headache. About 40% of 4,386 adolescents suffered from headaches at least once a week. Girls were more likely to have headaches and kids who...

The large amount of data and the statistical analyses in this paper look impressive and unfortunately may fool many readers into believing the conclusions made by the authors. The authors do acknowledge that the discharge diagnostic codes miss...

Smoking marijuana and taking its legal medicinal derivative, dronabinol helped one patient with cluster headaches, according to a report from the Montefiore Headache Clinic. Dronabinol is approved for the treatment of nausea and loss of appetite...

Migraine headaches in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder tend to be more frequent and disabling, according to a study in soldiers led by Dr. Jay Erickson. Soldiers with PTSD had almost twice as many headaches as soldiers without PTSD...

Both overweight and underweight people are more likely to have migraine headaches, according to a recent study published in journal Cephalalgia. Being overweight has been shown to increase the risk of chronic migraines in a previous large study, but...

Cluster headaches, which arguably cause the worst pain of any headache, are not likely to be cured by trigger point injections, according to a group of Spanish doctors. They treated 12 patients with trigger point injections and some of the patients...

Physical inactivity was strongly associated with headache disorders, according to a large study by Swedish researchers published in Headache. They looked at 43,770 people with recurrent headaches and migraines and found that economic hardship...

Red wine to relieve migraine? Red wine is a well-known trigger of migraine headaches (although French tend to disagree). A recent study published in journal Pain found that resveratrol, the active ingredient in red wine which is responsible for...

Doxycycline has been reported to relieve treatment-resistant new daily persistent headache in four patients. The dose was 100 mg twice a day and was given for 3 months. One of the patients responded after two weeks, but the average response...

Mindfulness meditation has been shown to produce numerous benefits in older adults with chronic low back pain. These benefits included less pain, improved attention, better sleep, enhanced well-being, and improved quality of life...

Treatment of menstrual migraines often is more difficult than of non-menstrual attacks. A double-blind study by Marcelo Bigal and his collaborators just published in Headache shows that a combination of 10 mg of rizatriptan (Maxalt) and 4 mg...

Migraines may be helped by omega-3 fatty acids, a supplement that has gained well deserved popularity. Several recent studies suggesting benefits for the cardiovascular system prompted me to look at the headache literature. An article in...Migraines may be helped by omega-3 fatty acids, a supplement that has gained well deserved popularity. Several recent studies suggesting benefits for the cardiovascular system prompted me to look at the headache literature. An article in...

Refractory migraines may respond to occipital nerve stimulation, according to Dr. Joel Saper who led a multicenter trial of this treatment. An electrode was surgically implanted in the back of the head, where the occipital nerve is located, and...

Patients who suffer from migraine headaches are 30% less likely to develop breast cancer. It is well established that fluctuating estrogen levels throughout the menstrual cycle can trigger migraine attacks. These fluctuations are reduced during...

It is well known that if you take a snapshot of the population, about 18% of women and 6% of men suffer from migraine headaches. However, a report by Dr. Stewart and his colleagues in the latest issue of Cephalalgia indicates that cumulative lifetime...

Magnesium is effective in preventing migraine headaches according to a new study published in the last issue of journal Magnesium Research. The researchers found that patients treated with magnesium, compared to those treated with placebo, had fewer...

15,056 patients with migraine and tension-type headaches were treated with acupuncture in a largest acupuncture study, which was financed by the German government. Results published in the latest issue of journal Cephalalgia by S. Jena and colleagues...

Progressive muscle relaxation is an integral part of biofeedback training, but can be used by itself for the treatment of migraine and tension-type headaches. A group of researchers at the Ohio State University published an article in the journal Pain...

Botox is effective for chronic migraines, according to a statement released by Allergan, maker of Botox. The company reported that a large multi-center trial (the New York Headache Center was one of the trial sites) yielded positive results...

Cluster headaches cause the worst pain imaginable, leading some patients to thoughts of suicide. They occur in about 0.1% of the population, while migraine headaches afflict 12%, which may explain why so much less research has been conducted on...