Update: I injected myself with Aimovig (erenumab) and here’s what happened so far

On June 1, I injected myself with erenumab (Aimovig). I still had to take sumatriptan for an incipient migraine on June 2 and June 5. On Thursday, June 7, I had a glass of red wine (pinot noir) with dinner and had no headache. Last night, June 9, I decided to stress-test my response to erenumab and had a beer before dinner and a big glass of sparkling wine with dinner. In the past, this combination had always resulted in a migraine a few hours later. This time, nothing happened!

And here is an excerpt from an email from a patient who was one of the first to receive Aimovig:

“Hello Doctor,
It has been a week now and I wanted to share with you the outcome.
It’s a very important improvement as I was able to stop taking Relpax compared to 40mg a day!
3-4 times I felt the migraine coming but it was like « stopped » and I was feeling ok.
It happened during the day and at night twice.
Overall it’s a fantastic improvement.”

Certainly, this all could be due to the placebo effect, but I doubt it, especially because my migraines did not stop right after the injection. I should stress that erenumab is not going to help everyone. Clinical trials suggest that about 60% of migraine sufferers will benefit, but this is a very high success rate, especially considering the lack of any significant side effects.

Cheers!