A novel therapy using a miniature nerve stimulator instead of medication for the treatment of profoundly disabling headache disorders improved the experience of pain by 80-95 percent, according to a new study from the University of California, San Francisco and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London.
Up to 35 million Americans suffer migraine and other forms of headache, according to the American Academy of Neurology.
“We need a range of treatments to offer patients whose lives are taken over by debilitating headaches,” said Peter J. Goadsby, MD, PhD, lead author, neurologist and director of the UCSF Headache Center. “It’s quite exciting to think about how technology will advance in the next five years to provide remarkable devices for the treatment of headache. Preventive approaches like these will completely change the landscape of headache treatment.”
The device, called a bion, is a rechargeable battery-powered electrode, similar in size to a matchstick. When implanted near the occipital nerve in the back of the neck, it alleviates pain by generating pulses that the nerve receives. The bion can be turned on or off via an external wireless remote control. Previous versions of the bion have been used in pain management for osteoarthritis and in the treatment of dislocated joints for patients recovering from stroke.
The study measured the effectiveness of nerve stimulation in six patients aged 37 to 64 with hemicrania continua, a rare headache disorder defined by the International Headache Society as a form of chronic daily headache in which patients have 15 days or more of headache per month.
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