Headache NewsBlog

Another study shows benefits of fish oil

By: Dr. Mauskop

21-08-2017

Alternative Therapies, Trigeminal and other neuralgias

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) which are found in fish oil, have been studied in a wide variety of diseases, ranging from Alzheimer’s disease to Herpes Zoster (shingles). Omega-3 PUFA have proven anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties and have been used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis, lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, as well as migraine headaches.

A new study just published in Neurology showed a strong beneficial effect of Omega-3 PUFA in the treatment of diabetic nerve damage, or diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy in patients with type 1 diabetes. After one year of taking 750 mg of EPA and 560 mg of DHA (two of the main omega-3 fatty acids) there was a significant improvement in the nerve function.

Omega-3 PUFA are proven to help patients with coronary artery disease, while in many other conditions, including migraines, the evidence is not as strong. However, considering that we have a very large amount of data showing a benefit in a wide variety of conditions and that Omega-3 PUFA are very safe and inexpensive, it is reasonable to try EPA with DHA for any auto-immune or inflammatory condition, as well as depression.

Eating fatty fish, such as salmon and sardines 2-3 times a week can be sufficient for general health, but those with coronary artery disease and other conditions could benefit from a daily supplement. Also, fish often contains mercury, which can cause neurological and other problems. Omax3 and prescription fish oil, Lovaza are my preferred products because they contain no mercury and are highly concentrated, requiring only 1 or 2 pills a day.

Botox injections improve not only migraine symptoms, but also sleep and fatigue

By: Dr. Mauskop

14-08-2017

Botox, Chronic migraine, Migraine

Sleep disturbances and fatigue are more common in patients with chronic migraine headaches than in people without migraines. Sometimes it is not clear what came first, migraines or the sleep problem with secondary fatigue.

A multicenter study performed in Australia, South Korea, and the US examined the effect of Botox injections given for chronic migraines on sleep and fatigue. This was a 108-week study of 715 adult patients who received Botox injections every 12 weeks. Their sleep quality was assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and fatigue was measured by the Fatigue Severity Scale, both standard and proven measures of sleep and fatigue.

The authors presented their findings at the American Headache Society meeting held two months ago in Boston. While sleep quality was poor before injections were started, significant improvement was noted 24 weeks later and the improvement persisted for the rest of the study. The same was true for fatigue. These findings suggest that sleep difficulty and fatigue are more often the result of chronic migraine, rather than the other way around.

This does not mean that sleep issues should not be addressed while chronic migraine is being treated. Patients are advised to adhere to sleep hygiene, which consists of going to sleep and getting up at the same time, not reading or looking at any screens in bed, sleeping in a cool and quiet environment, exercising and eating at least 2 hours before bedtime, and avoiding caffeine after 1 PM. Regular practice of progressive relaxation and meditation can be very effective for sleep, migraines, and stress. Natural supplements for sleep, such as melatonin and valerian root are also worth trying.

As far as fatigue, we always check vitamin B12 levels, along with vitamin D, RBC magnesium, thyroid, and other blood tests.

Anxiety contributes to disability in kids with headaches

By: Dr. Mauskop

07-08-2017

Alternative Therapies, Headaches in children, Psychology of headaches

Anxiety is at least twice as common in both children and adults with migraine headaches compared to people without migraines. A new study presented at the recent American Headache Society meeting examined the impact of anxiety on functioning in pediatric migraine population. The researchers analyzed records of 530 kids with migraine and 371 with tension-type headache seen in the pediatric neurology clinic of the Boston Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Lebel and her colleagues discovered that physiological anxiety was associated with more severe functional disability in kids with both migraines and tension-type headaches. Physiological anxiety often manifests itself by sleep difficulties, racing heart, shortness of breath, feeling shaky, fatigue, and other. The other two types of anxiety, worry and social anxiety did not seem to lead to more disability.

This study confirms the importance of cognitive and behavioral treatments, such as progressive relaxation, biofeedback, meditation, and cognitive therapy. Kids are very good at these techniques and they are particularly receptive to smartphone-based apps. For meditation, I recommend 10% Happier and Headspace. TaraBrach.com offers free podcasts for meditation and ThisWayUp.org.au provides very inexpensive and scientifically proven cognitive-behavioral therapy.

At the NY Headache Center we always try to avoid drugs, especially in children. In addition to cognitive and behavioral techniques, we address sleep, exercise, diet and supplements such as magnesium, CoQ10, and other. If medication is needed, this study suggests that a beta blocker, such as propranolol (Inderal) may be a good choice because in addition to preventing migraines, it reduces physiological symptoms of anxiety (it is also used for performance anxiety). Potential side effects of beta blockers are mostly due to its pressure lowering effect and include fatigue, dizziness, and lightheadedness.

Occipital (back of the head) headaches in children

By: Dr. Mauskop

05-08-2017

Headaches in children

Most children who complain of headaches report pain in the forehead and/or temples. Doctors and parents tend to get more alarmed when a child complains of a headache in the back of the head and such children are more likely to have an MRI scan of the brain. According to a new study published in Neurology, there is no reason for concern.

The researchers examined records of 308 children under 18 (median age was 12) seen at a pediatric neurology clinic and found that 7% of them had pain only in the occipital area, while another 14% had pain in the occipital and another part of the head. The majority of children had migraine headaches. Not surprisingly, more kids with pain in the back of the head had an MRI scan. However, they did not have any more abnormal MRI findings than children with pain in other parts of the head. In fact none of the 4 children in this group who had a serious problem (2 had tumors and 2 had increased pressure) had occipital pain.

Considering that migraine headaches are common in children (4-11% of all kids) there is no need to do MRI scans in all kids with recurrent headaches. The American Academy of Neurology and Child Neurology Society do not recommend a CAT or MRI scan in children with recurrent headaches and a normal neurologic examination. However, 45% of children do get neuroimaging. Imaging is particularly unnecessary if other members of the family suffer from similar headaches.

Neuroimaging is indicated in patients with recurrent headaches and abnormal neurologic examination, seizures, those with recent onset of severe headaches or recent changes in the character of headaches. Changes in the character of headaches may include shift in location, increase in frequency or severity, new associated symptoms such as blurred vision, dizziness, fever, and other.

Sumatriptan injections still underutilized. New lower dose, easy-to-use device could help

By: Dr. Mauskop

30-07-2017

Headache medications, injections, Migraine

Sumatriptan (Imitrex) injection was introduced 25 years ago, but it remains extremely underutilized. Of course, why would you inject yourself if a pill does the job. Unfortunately, for many migraine sufferers sumatriptan and other triptan tablets do not provide complete or fast enough relief. In many patients tablets do not work well because some wake up with a severe migraine, in some it starts very suddenly, and in others it is accompanied by nausea and vomiting. All these conditions require a quickly acting drug that bypasses the stomach. Zolmitriptan (Zomig) and sumatriptan nasal sprays or sumatriptan nasal powder (Onzetra) sometimes work well and quickly enough, but the gold standard in the abortive treatment of migraines (and cluster headaches) is sumatriptan injection.

Sumatriptan injection works within 10-15 minutes and often provides complete relief of the headache and associated symptoms – nausea, sensitivity to light and noise, and other. Because of a sudden surge in the sumatriptan level in the blood, side effects are more common than with tablets. These can include pins-and-needles like sensations, tightness in the neck or chest, or temporary worsening of the headache. These side effects last only 15-20 minutes and do not prevent most patients from using injections.

Sumatriptan injections were originally released only in a 6 mg dose. A few years later, 4 mg dose became available. Last year, a simple-to-use autoinjector with 3 mg of sumatriptan (Zembrace) was approved by the FDA. Studies presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Headache Society in Boston compared the efficacy of 3 mg and 6 mg injections. Surprisingly, they were equally effective and well tolerated. The manufacturer of the 3 mg auto-injector also compared their injection device with two older devices. Findings of this study were not a surprise – Zembrace was easier to use with fewer mistakes and faster preparation and administration. Zembrace requires only two steps – pulling off a cap and pressing the pen-like device against the thigh (and holding it pressed for 10 seconds). Also, of all auto-injectors Zembrace has the thinnest needle.

One potential difficulty is the insurance coverage. Since Zembrace is more expensive, the insurers may offer to pay only for the old type devices with 4 or 6 mg of sumatriptan. The manufacturer does offer discounts and coupons, which you can find online.

The bottom line, if you are not getting good relief of your migraine headaches, ask your doctor about sumatriptan injections. If you have tried injections in the past and did not like the side effects – check if the dose you tried was 6 mg and if yes, you may want to try 3 or 4 mg injections.

Sumatriptan injection is the only FDA-approved treatment for cluster headaches. Cluster headaches are very sudden and brief attacks of excruciating headaches that pills rarely have a chance to control.

Conflict of interest disclosure: last year Zembrace manufacturer paid me to participate in an advisory board meeting.

Migraine increases the risk of stroke during and after surgery

By: Dr. Mauskop

23-07-2017

Brain disorders, Migraine

It is an established fact that migraine, and especially migraine with aura increases the risk of strokes. The increase in the risk is small, but according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal, it is higher during and after surgery.

The researchers examined records of 124,558 surgical patients at the Massachusetts General and two other hospitals. Among these, 8.2% or 10,179 patients had a history of migraines with 1,278 or 12.6% having migraine with aura. The risk of stroke during or within 30 days after surgery was 1-2 in 1,000 among patients without migraine history, 4 in 1,000 in those who had migraines and 6 in 1,000 in patients who had migraine with aura. So, the absolute risk of a stroke is still very small, but the relative risk is statistically much higher. They also discovered that strokes were more common in patients who during surgery needed medications to increase their blood pressure. Most of the strokes occurred within the first two days after surgery.

We do not know why migraine carries an increased risk for strokes, so the only recommendation the authors offer is for migraine diagnosis to be included in the preoperative risk assessment of patients. I would add that according to another study, taking high doses of magnesium and potassium supplements could possibly reduce this risk. Magnesium alone was shown to reduce the risk of strokes in another review of studies involving 6,477 patients. Our own research and that of others have shown the beneficial effect of magnesium on the prevention of migraines as well. Here is one of a dozen posts on magnesium on this blog that provides dosing recommendations.

Telemedicine is effective to treat headache patients

By: Dr. Mauskop

19-07-2017

Headaches

We often get requests for a telephone consultation from patients who live too far to come in for a visit. Unfortunately, insurance companies do not cover telephone or video-link consultations. An additional obstacle in the US is that doctors cannot treat patients outside the state where they are licensed because each state licenses their own doctors. If patients can afford to pay, we do offer follow-up telephone consultations to patients who live out of state or abroad and who were first seen in our office.

A group of Norwegian researchers examined how safe and effective it is to treat patients without seeing them in person by using a video link. The results of their study was published in a recent issue of the journal Neurology. They compared 3 and 12 month outcomes after a single consultation in 200 patients using telemedicine with 202 patients seen in the office. All patients were referred by their primary care doctor. They included only patients with non-acute headaches, that is those whose headaches started gradually more than 4 weeks prior to the visit and showed no clinical or MRI abnormalities. Doctors ordered about the same number of MRI scans in both group (58 and 62). Over the subsequent year a serious underlying cause was found in one patient in each group. Treatment outcomes after 1 year were the same in both group, although in both groups the improvement in headache severity and its impact on the daily life was modest. There was a high level of satisfaction with the consultation in both groups.

The main shortcoming of the study is that every patient completed a variety of questionnaires and had a much more detailed evaluation than you’d expect in a non-study setting. The study suggests that a single consultation may not be sufficient to provide an optimal outcome. Also, while over 40% of patients had chronic migraines, obviously none could be treated with Botox, which is the only FDA-approved treatment for chronic migraines.

In conclusion, consultation via telemedicine is a viable option for patients in areas without headache specialists.

New information on cluster headaches

By: Dr. Mauskop

17-07-2017

Blocks, Botox, Cluster headaches, Headache medications

Cluster headache is one of the most painful conditions that has lead some patients call it a suicide headache. A new observational study done by researchers at the Eli Lilly company and Stanford University was presented at the recent annual scientific meeting of the American Headache Society.

Considering that cluster headaches are relatively rare, the major strength of this study is its size – 7589 patients. These patients were compared to over 30,000 control subjects without headaches. We’ve always known that cluster headaches are more common in men with previous studies indicating that male to female ratio is between 5:1 and 3:1. However, only 57% of patients in this new report were males. This does not reflect my experience – I see at least five times as many men as women. It is possible that I underdiagnose cluster headaches in women or the study used unreliable data. In fact, the study data was collected from insurance claims, so I suspect that the truth is closer to my experience and to the older published data.

The study did find that thoughts of suicide were 2.5 times more common in patients with cluster headaches compared to controls, while depression, anxiety and sleep disorders were twice as common. Cluster headache patients also were 3 times more likely to have drug dependence. The most commonly prescribed drugs were opiates (narcotics) in 41%, which partially explains high drug dependence rates, steroids, such as prednisone (34%), triptans, such as sumatriptan (32%), antidepressants (31%), NSAIDs (29%), epilepsy drugs (28%), blood pressure drugs, such as verapamil (27%), and benzodiazepines, such as Valium or Xanax (22%).

It is very unfortunate that over a period of one year only 30% of patients were prescribed drugs recommended for cluster headaches. We know that narcotics and benzodiazepine tranquilizers are not very effective and can lead to dependence and addiction. Drugs that are effective include a short course of steroids (prednisone), sumatriptan injections, blood pressure drug verapamil (often at a high dose), some epilepsy drugs and occasionally certain antidepressants. The report did not mention oxygen, which can stop individual attacks in up to 60% of cluster headache sufferers. Nerve blocks and to a lesser extent, Botox injections can also provide lasting relief. It is possible that the data on oxygen, nerve blocks and Botox was not available.

Another report on Botox for trigeminal neuralgia

By: Dr. Mauskop

10-07-2017

Botox, Trigeminal and other neuralgias

Trigeminal neuralgia is a rare, but an extremely painful conditions. Patients compare the quality and the severity of pain to an electric shock. The underlying cause is usually compression of the trigeminal nerve by a blood vessel inside the skull and underneath the brain. Surgery to place a teflon pad between the nerve and the blood vessel is curative, but many patients can avoid surgery by using drugs such as carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine, baclofen, and other. Botox, which is approved only for one pain condition – chronic migraines, appears to help other painful conditions, including trigeminal neuralgia (TN). A single previous double-blind placebo-controlled study by Chinese doctors confirmed our clinical observation that Botox does indeed help TN.

A new report presented at the annual meeting of the American Headache Society, also by Chinese researchers describes another positive study. This study compared a single injection of Botox with two injections separated by two weeks. It is not clear what was the logic in giving a second treatment so soon after the first one since Botox effect lasts 3 months. They followed 81 patients for 6 months and both groups had more than 80% success in the first 3 months and somewhat less of an effect in the last 3 months of the study. This was not a blinded study, but placebo response is relatively low in TN, probably because of the high pain intensity. While this study was not as scientific as the first one, it does offer some additional evidence of the efficacy of Botox for TN. Botox is certainly much safer than medications, although facial asymmetry can be an unpleasant cosmetic side effect, especially if pain involves the second branch of the TN (middle of the face).

More support for the use of Botox in posttraumatic headaches

By: Dr. Mauskop

30-06-2017

Botox, Chronic migraine, Head trauma, post-traumatic headache

Concussion, even when it is mild, can result in a post-concussion syndrome. The main symptom is a headache and it is present in 60% of people within the first year after a mild traumatic brain injury. In people with personal or family history of migraines these headaches are often post-traumatic chronic migraines. Post-traumatic headaches and other symptoms such as dizziness and difficulty with vision, concentration and memory are often difficult to treat. However, an effective treatment of headaches often leads to an improvement in other symptoms as well.

Treatment with epilepsy drugs (Topamax, Depakote, Neurontin), blood pressure medications (propranolol), or antidepressants (Elavil, Cymbalta) can be effective in some, but not in all and not without side effects. Botox injections have been very effective without any serious side effects in many of my patients and similar results have been published by other doctors (see here and here).

Dr. Sylvia Lucas of University of Washington in Seattle presented her experience with the treatment of posttraumatic headaches with Botox at the annual meeting of the American Headache Society held in Boston last month. She described 15 patients who sustained a mild traumatic brain injury and suffered from chronic migraines for an average of 8 months prior to being treated with Botox. After a series of three Botox treatments given every 3 months most patients had a significant improvement in the number of headache days, as well as improved physical and social functioning, emotional well-being, energy level and a reduction in pain. As expected, no patient experienced any serious side effects.

Our report on stem cells for migraines is published

By: Dr. Mauskop

28-06-2017

Alternative Therapies, Chronic migraine, Migraine

Stem cells hold great promise in the treatment of many conditions, possibly including migraines. In a post from 3 years ago I’ve written about a report from Australia that described 4 patients with refractory chronic headaches who had a very good response from stem cells. They were given stem cells for other conditions and coincidentally their migraines improved.

Since many patients come to our practice after seeing several other neurologists and headache specialists, we often have to resort to new, non-traditional, and unproven treatments. This is how I started using Botox 25 years ago (the FDA approved it for migraines only 6 years ago).

After reading the Australian report I decided to try stem cell treatment in some of my most refractory patients. Only patients who failed to respond to Botox and at least 3 preventive drugs were offered to participate in this pilot study. The only type of stem cells that the FDA allows to be injected are cells taken from patient’s own body without altering them. The richest source of stem cells in our bodies is fat. My colleague, Dr. Kenneth Rothaus who is a plastic surgeon, performed a liposuction to obtained fat tissue, from which we separated active cells.

We enrolled 9 patients and 3 did have significant temporary improvement. The results are obviously not dramatic, but it is possible that in less severely affected patients this treatment could work better. More importantly, using stem cells from an umbilical cord or placenta is more likely to be effective as these are younger and more active stem cells. There are many companies researching these cells for various indications, but not yet migraines. The reason why stem cells should help at least some migraine sufferers is the fact that they have strong anti-inflammatory properties while migraine involves neurogenic inflammation.

The results of our pilot study were just published in Case Reports in Neurology.

Opioid hydromorphone (Dilaudid) does not help migraine

By: Dr. Mauskop

26-06-2017

Headache medications, Migraine

Unfortunately, opioid hydromorphone (Dilaudid) is still administered to 25% of patients with an acute migraine visiting an ER. Benjamin Friedman and his colleagues at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx compared the efficacy of 1 mg of intravenous hydromorphone with an intravenous nausea medicine, prochlorperazine (Compazine), 10 mg plus diphenhydramine (Benadryl), 25 mg.
They presented their findings last month at the annual meeting of the American Headache Society. The study was blinded, but a safety monitoring committee stopped it early because the results were so lopsided. Prochlorperazine with diphenhydramine was twice as effective (60%) as hydromorphone (31%) in stopping a migraine and in preventing it from coming back within 48 hours.
So, if you end up in an ER for your migraine, refuse hydromorphone (Dilaudid), meperidine (Demerol), or any other opioid (narcotic) medication. Here is my old post with drugs other than prochlorperazine that are also effective.