Every year, more than one billion individuals worldwide suffer from migraine.
Migraine headaches, which can have a significant influence on a person’s quality of life, presently have no treatment.
Researchers from Spain’s Vall d’Hebron University Hospital recently published data demonstrating that the medicine atogepant helps prevent headaches in persons with episodic migraine who have not had success with other preventative treatments.
Scientists also observed that the treatment minimizes the number of migraine days a person gets each month and the amount of medication they need to take.
Every year, more than 1 billion individuals throughout the world suffer from migraine.
Currently, there is no treatment for this sort of severe headache, which can have a significant impact on a person’s quality of life.Reliable Source.
Although there are migraine drugs available, they may not always work for everyone.
Now, researchers from Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, have presented findings at the American Academy of Neurology’s 75th annual conference that suggest the medication atogepantTrusted Source — which is already licensed in the United States as a prophylactic therapy for episodic migraine — is effective in treating episodic migraine.Trusted Source – aids in the prevention of episodic migraine headaches in those who have had little success with other preventative medications.
Furthermore, scientists claim that the treatment reduces the number of migraine headaches experienced by research participants every month as well as the frequency with which they must use medication to halt a migraine episode.
What exactly is episodic migraine?
Migraine is a neurological illness that causes repeated headaches with a strong throbbing or pulsing feeling, generally on one side of the head.
Other migraine symptoms include:
dizziness caused by nausea and/or vomiting ache in the neckTrusted Source eyesight shifts, resulting in a “aura.”Trusted Source” with wavy or flashing light increased light and/or sound sensitivity Trusted Source weariness mood changesdependable source
People who suffer up to 14 migraine headaches in a month are said to have episodic migraine. Chronic migraine is defined as 15 or more migraines per monthTrusted Source.
Migraine headaches can be triggered by a number of factors, including:
hormonal shifts Chemical abnormalities in the body dietTrusted Source emotional triggersMedication from a Reliable SourceEnvironmental Triggers from a Reliable Source
Headaches have an influence on one’s quality of life.
Dr. Vernon Williams, a sports neurologist and pain management specialist at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles, told Medical News Today that it is not uncommon to see people with episodic migraine who have had no success with preventative drugs.
“Some patients respond well to a variety of preventive medications.” Others will experience adverse effects or difficulty due to the ineffectiveness of prophylactic drugs,” he stated.
According to Williams, it is critical to have prophylactic drugs for episodic migraine headaches since they can greatly impair a person’s capacity to function and lower their quality of life.
“If migraines are negatively impacting someone’s function, quality of life, and ability to do the things they’d like to do, want to do, and need to do,” he added. “Perhaps instead of four or five headaches per month, eight or ten headaches per month, they get one headache per month or one headache every other month.”
“You can see how that would have an effect on people’s performance at work, their abilities to do the things they need to do at school, care for their family, (and) interact with loved ones,” Williams noted. “It’s all about improving people’s ability to do the things they want to do, need to do, and want to do without the difficulties associated with episodic migraine attacks, which can keep them from being fully present in their lives.”
CGRP inhibitors and migraine attacks
Doctors currently treat migraine headaches with a variety of medications, including beta-blockersTrusted Source, calcium channel blockersTrusted Source, and anti-seizure medicationsTrusted Source, according to Dr. Medhat Mikhael, a pain management specialist and medical director of the non-operative program at the Spine Health Center at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in California.
He did admit, though, that they were not always successful.
Mikhael told Medical News Today that they are seeing improved outcomes with the new family of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors, including atogepant, now accessible for migraine treatment and prevention.
“We saw… not only fewer migraine days, but also a lot less severe (migraine headaches that) can be treated with some over-the-counter (medications)” he stated. “And in some patients, they have gone months without experiencing any migraine or monthly migraine headache days at all.”
Mikhael stated that binding the CGRP receptor prevents a cascade of responses that lead the trigeminal nerveTrusted Source in the head to become inflamed and dilated, which is what makes CGRP inhibitors effective in both preventing and stopping migraine headaches.
“What is good about (CGRP inhibitors) is that it does not cause any vasoconstriction of the trigeminal arteryTrusted Source like the class of triptansTrusted Source that we use a lot to avoid migraine,” he continued. “With CGRP inhibitors, no patients experience chest tightness, chest pain, neck tightness, or flushing in the face.” In terms of that class of medications, the adverse effect profile is relatively minimal and well tolerated by the majority of patients.”
CGRP Inhibitor Evaluation
The current trial looked at the effectiveness, safety, and tolerability of atogepant, a form of CGRP inhibitor, for the prevention of episodic migraine in persons who had previously failed two to four other types of oral migraine medicines.
For 12 weeks, the 309 individuals in the trial were given either atogepant or a placebo.
According to the findings, individuals who took atogepant experienced four fewer days of migraine each month from the start of the trial to the end, compared to only two less days among those who took the placebo.
Furthermore, researchers discovered that people who took the treatment needed fewer prescriptions to terminate a migraine episode as compared to those who took a placebo.
The most prevalent negative effects, according to the researchers, were constipation and nausea.
“People who thought they might not be able to find a way to prevent and treat their migraines may have hope of finding relief with a tolerable oral easy-to-use drug,” said Dr. Patricia Pozo-Rosich, study author and director of the Headache and Neurological Pain Research Group at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital. “This treatment was safe, well-tolerated, and effective for people with difficult-to-treat migraine.”
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