New York Headache blog

Cluster headaches are considered to cause the worst pain imaginable. We have a variety of medications – both acute and preventive – that help relieve the pain of cluster headaches. For some, none of these treatments...

I’ve been prescribing medical marijuana (MM) since 2016 when it became legal in New York. We still lack controlled clinical trials of MM for the treatment of migraines. Most of my patients who find MM useful report that it...

Worsening of headaches in children is one of many deleterious effects of the pandemic and measures to control it. A survey of children in a headache clinic at the Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC by Dr. DiSabell...

There is a new and surprising connection between postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) and migraines. It offers a very effective treatment that will relieve the suffering of tens of thousands of patients. Many migraine patients tell...

Magnetic stimulation with a single pulse has been shown to be effective in aborting a migraine attack with the eNeura Spring TMS device. Repetitive magnetic stimulation rTMS) of the brain has been shown to relieve depression...

Ketamine was approved by the FDA in 1970 and was originally used for the induction of anesthesia. It has been shown to relieve depression and is also widely used to treat pain. For depression, it is approved by the FDA in a nasal...

With Swiss colleagues Drs. Caterina Podella, Livia Granata, and Reto Agosti at the headache conference held on November 4, 2021, in Zürich. Dr. Podella presented a very comprehensive approach to the treatment of migraine...

The influence of estrogen on migraines in women is well established – women often experience migraines before or during menstruation and ovulation and their migraines usually subside during pregnancy and menopause...

The placebo effect is a bane of clinical trials. It is, however, a great tool in clinical practice. It is unethical to prescribe an actual placebo but there is no reason not to try to enhance the placebo effect when prescribing any...

I am honored to participate in a symposium on headache management,“THE CHALLENGE OF MIGRAINE AND CLUSTER HEADACHES”. The title of my presentation is The challenge of migraine: new perspectives in refractory cases...

To gain FDA approval a drug has to be shown to be better than a placebo. The placebo effect is a well-established psychological contributor to the efficacy of most treatments. A group of Italian researchers just published...

Atogepant (Qulipta) is a new migraine drug that was just approved by the FDA for the preventive treatment of migraines. It is the third drug in the family of gepants. Gepants block the CGRP receptor. CGRP is a chemical...

Many migraine sufferers report that their migraines are brought on by the weather. High humidity, high temperatures, and changes in barometric pressure are the most commonly reported triggers. I’ve seen some patients for whom...

Two large studies have established that if you have diabetes you are less likely to suffer from migraines. The first study was done on the entire population of Norway. The authors concluded that both type 1 and type 2 diabetes...

Patients coming to the New York Headache Center have enjoyed seeing my daughter Julie’s artwork since she was 11. This was not just a childhood interest – Julie graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree...

Trudhesa is a new formulation of dihydroergotamine (DHE) nasal spray just approved by the FDA. It appears to be more effective than the original DHE nasal spray (Migranal) that was introduced in 1997. Ergotamine, the first migraine...

The placebo effect is a bane of clinical trials. A drug is considered ineffective if it is only as good as a placebo. And placebo can be quite good. Intriguingly, the placebo effect in clinical trials has been getting stronger over the past...

It is gratifying to know that my colleagues consider my new book, The End of Migraines: 150 Ways to Stop Your Pain, to be useful for patients with migraines as well as doctors who treat them. Dr. Uwe Reuter of Charité Universitätsmedizin...

Migraine can be triggered by many foods, including sugar, chocolate, smoked, pickled, cured, dried, and fermented foods. There are also foods that can help with migraines. These are magnesium-rich dark leafy vegetables...

Many patients with headaches are concerned about having a brain aneurysm. It is rare for an aneurysm to cause ongoing headaches. An aneurysm usually causes one very severe headache when it ruptures and causes...

In the US, we are lucky to have seven different triptans available in the pharmacies. Five of them – sumatriptan, rizatriptan, zolmitriptan, eletriptan, and almotriptan are considered to be more effective than the other two – naratriptan...

Many patients with chronic migraines complain of memory, word-finding, and other cognitive difficulties. I tell them that once we find an effective treatment for their migraines, their cognitive abilities should improve...

The pain of cluster headaches is considered to be the worst of all headaches. Hence the moniker, suicide headaches. Thankfully, it is a rare condition. Episodic cluster headaches affect a little over 0.1% of the population or approximately...

It’s been a few years since I wrote about meditation. There is little doubt that it helps migraine sufferers. Unlike drugs, meditation is harder to test in clinical trials. However, we do have many imaging studies showing the effect...

The international classification of headache disorders lists many different types of migraines – migraine with aura, hemiplegic, retinal, chronic, and others. Chronic migraine is present if a person has a headache on 15 or more...

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is an extremely painful and often debilitating condition. Many people respond to the standard therapy with epilepsy drugs such as carbamazepine (Tegretol) or oxcarbazepine (Trileptal). Botox injections...

A publication of the American Headache Society, Headache, The Journal of Head and Face Pain, has just published Dr. Allan Purdy’s most generous review of my new book, The End of Migraines: 150 Ways to Stop Your Pain...

Biohaven, the manufacturer of rimegepant (Nurtec ODT) just received FDA approval to market this drug for the prevention of migraines. Rimegepant was approved in January of 2020 for the acute treatment of migraine headaches...

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is an extremely painful condition. Patients describe the pain as electric shocks going through the face. The most common or classic form of TN is caused by the compression of the trigeminal nerve as...

The opioid epidemic has claimed many lives. Overprescribing by doctors has certainly played a role. The push to use opioids more liberally started in the late 1980s. This promotion by many pain experts even led to pain...