Migralex is an over-the-counter medication for the treatment of headaches, which will become available in November of 2009. Results of the first study of Migralex were presented at the annual scientific meeting of the American Headache Society in Boston. In an open-label study 50 patients with headaches who were being treated at the NYHC compared Migralex with their usual medication. Half of the patients found Migralex better or much better than their usual treatment and 27 were willing to take it again. In 31 of 50 patients the usual medication was a triptan ( a prescription migraine medication) and in 19 it was a prescription or over-the-counter pain medication. Migralex was well tolerated, with only one patient reporting upset stomach.
Read MoreA person empathizing with someone in pain perceives his or her own pain as more severe and unpleasant. Researchers at McGill University published these findings in the current issue of journal Pain. This observation could explain, at least in part, high frequency of pain symptoms observed in spouses of chronic pain patients. Even laboratory mice have heightened pain behavior when exposed to cagemates, but not to strangers, in pain. Clearly, the thing to do is not to ignore your spouse’s or friend’s pain, but rather try to get the pain relieved. If that is not possible, hopefully, a cognitive-behavioral psychologist may be able to devise a way to be very supportive and helpful without constantly feeling badly for the person in pain.
Read MoreTreatment of migraines leaves a lot to be desired and in part not because we do not have effective treatment, but because of a communication barrier. Doctors appear not to want to hear what migraine patients have to say about their headaches, according to a remarkable study by a top headache researcher Richard Lipton and his colleagues. Patients and doctors agreed to be videotaped during a visit and 60 such interactions were analyzed. The analysis showed that doctors did not ask about the disability of headaches and tended to ask closed-end short questions. Very often the information they did obtain was incorrect. 55% of doctor-patient pairs were misaligned regarding frequency of attacks; 51% on the degree of impairment. Of the 20 (33%) patients who were preventive medication candidates, 80% did not receive it and 50% of their visits lacked discussion of prevention. The authors recommended that doctors assess impairment using open-ended questions in combination with what is called the ask-tell-ask technique.
Read More“Anne Frank’s headache” is the title of an article just published by RF de Almeida and PA Kowacs in the journal Cephalalgia. This is an abstract of the article: “There are a significant number of famous people who suffered from frequent headaches during their lifetime while also exerting an influence of some kind on politics or the course of history. One such person was Anneliese Marie Frank, the German-born Jewish teenager better known as Anne Frank, who was forced into hiding during World War II. When she turned 13, she received a diary as a present, named it ‘Kitty’ and started to record her experiences and feelings. She kept the diary during her period in hiding, describing her daily life, including the feeling of isolation, her fear of being discovered, her admiration for her father and her opinion about women’s role in society, as well as the discovery of her own sexuality. She sometimes reported a headache that disturbed her tremendously. The ‘bad’ to ‘terrifying’ and ‘pounding’ headache attacks, which were accompanied by vomiting and during which she felt like screaming to be left alone, matched the International Headache Society criteria for probable migraine, whereas the ‘more frequent headaches’ described by Anne’s father are more likely to have been tension-type headaches than headaches secondary to ocular or other disorders.”
Read MoreMigralex – A Breakthrough in the Treatment of Headaches.
Migralex is a headache medication developed and patented by Dr. Alexander Mauskop, Director and Founder of the New York Headache Center. Migralex is a product of 15 years of research and development. It will become available for purchase at the end of 2009 at www.Migralex.com and www.Amazon.com.
Read More“Old Drugs In, New Ones Out”, a story in the New York Times on July 1, 2007 reports on a growing trend in the pharmaceutical industry where two existing generic drugs are combined into a new more effective product. “Old Drugs In, New Ones Out”, a story in the New York Times on July 1, 2007 reports on a growing trend in the pharmaceutical industry where two existing generic drugs are combined into a new more effective product. One example is Trexima, a drug developed by Pozen and GlaxoSmithKline, which contains sumatriptan (Imitrex) and naproxen (Aleve). Combining drugs with different mechanisms of action results in an improved efficacy, although side effects could also add up. The New York Headache Center has participated in the trials of Trexima, which is expected to be approved by the FDA in August of this year.
Another example of combining two old ingredients is Migralex, a medication for the acute treatment of headaches, which is being developed by Dr. Alexander Mauskop. Migralex is expected to be available to patients by the end of 2009. It will contain a combination of aspirin and magnesium. Migralex will have an improved side effect profile because magnesium has a protective effect on the stomach lining.
Read More
Recent Comments