migraines

A massive international study designed to unearth new knowledge around the causes of migraines has turned up some interesting new insights, with the authors effectively tripling the number of known genetic risk factors for the condition.

In a new study, occipital nerve stimulation has been found to reduce the frequency and severity of headaches in patients suffering chronic cluster headaches, and the results suggest low doses of electrical stimulation are as effective as high doses.

New research suggests cannabis use can be linked to higher rates of "rebound headaches" in migraine sufferers. The research is observational and retrospective, but it is yet another finding questioning how helpful cannabis is for chronic migraine patients.

An exploratory study has found a single dose of the psychedelic psilocybin can reduce migraine frequency by 50 percent for a least two weeks. The preliminary trial was small but the promising findings suggest potential for psychedelics to treat migraines.

Three years ago, scientists from the University of Arizona reported that exposure to green light appeared to reduce neuropathic pain in rats. Now, the researchers believe that such light could also be used to treat migraine headaches in humans.

Continuing the wave of cutting-edge new migraine drugs reaching the American market, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now approved the first oral calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) antagonist for acute migraine treatment.

New research is presenting evidence that cannabis can significantly reduce the severity of headaches and migraines. But the question remains: why are scientists coming up with such discordant results on whether cannabis can reduce pain?

A study is reporting successful clinical trial results for a new orally administered iteration in a novel class of drugs designed to treat migraine, ahead of a potential FDA approval later this year. But some scientists are questioning how clinically useful these new migraine drugs actually are. ​

For some migraine sufferers, the pain is preceded by visual artefacts called aura, triggered by a wave of electrical activity in the brain. Now researchers have found a way to counter and slow the spread of those signals, which could be the first step towards preventing or lessening migraines.

After successful and safe clinical trials, the FDA has approved a first-of-its-kind migraine preventative medicine. It's the first in an entirely new class of drugs designed to block the activity of a specific peptide known to activate migraines that has been cleared for public use by the agency.

A new antibody treatment developed specifically for migraine prevention has just completed Phase III human clinical trials with remarkably positive results, raising hopes of a possible revolution on the horizon for sufferers of this debilitating condition.

​There may be new hope for migraine sufferers, in the form of a gadget that gets shoved up the ear. It alternately heats and cools the inside of the ear canal, and was recently shown to be effective in a study carried out by Britain's University of Kent.