F.D.A Approves New Migraine Treatment
For the nation’s 37 million migraine sufferers, there is long-awaited good news: the Food and Drug Administration just gave a green light to the first-ever device to treat migraine. Lawrence Newman, MD, Director of the Headache Institute at Mount Sinai Roosevelt, discussed Cefaly, the battery-powered headband that works by stimulating the branches of the trigeminal nerve, which is the nerve that becomes activated during the migraine and which was shown to decrease the frequency of future migraine attacks. According to Dr. Newman, “The study looked at people with anywhere from two to eight headaches a month and it decreased the frequency by about two days per month over the three month period, so it’s not wonderful, but if someone can’t take a medication or doesn’t respond optimally to another medication, it’s another weapon that they have to decrease the frequency of headaches.” Dr. Newman’s office has already received approximately 100 calls from patients asking about the new device.
-Dr. Lawrence Newman, Director of the Headache Institute, Mount Sinai Roosevelt