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BOTOX® Injections Beats Migraines
More studies show that botox help migraines.
MONDAY, June 17 (HealthScoutNews) -- Botox Injection, touted for
its wrinkle-erasing powers, does more than freshen up an aging
face: It's also gaining acceptance as a treatment for severe headaches.
This weekend, researchers meeting in Seattle will present even
more evidence that Botox Injection can indeed relieve the pain
of migraines.
Exactly why the wrinkle-reducer zaps migraines and other headaches
isn't clear, says Dr. Eric Eross, one of the researchers reporting
on his findings at the American Headache Society's annual meeting.
"We know how Botox Injections work in paralyzing muscles
[for wrinkle relief]," he says. When injected to get rid
of frown lines and crows' feet, the purified form of the toxin
that causes botulism partially paralyzes muscles, with the effect
lasting for about three months.
However, when Botox Injections are used for headaches, he says,
"this has more effect than muscle paralysis. We think it
interferes with the transmission of nerve pain signals. There's
pretty good evidence that's true."
Like other researchers, Eross says Botox Injection for headache
pain could be big.
"I think we're on the verge of a boom," he says. Besides
wrinkle relief, Botox Injection is used to quell excess sweating.
Next, say researchers like Eross, it may help more of the 28 million
Americans with migraine pain.
In his study, Eross evaluated 48 patients with chronic migraine
and administered from 25 units to 100 units of Botox-- more than
the typical cosmetic-surgery patient gets -- at several sites,
including the forehead, temples and sometimes the back of the
neck and the shoulders.
"There's no numbing," he says, "and it's relatively
painless."
Most of the patients in the study were also on migraine medication,
both those designed to work preventively and those used for acute
attacks, Eross says. But "we do have a handful of patients
who were just on Botox Injections."
Three months after the injections, patients responded to a disability
evaluation instrument, called the MIDAS, widely used by researchers
to evaluate disability but just now being used in migraine studies.
Eross' study was conducted at the Mayo Clinic Scottsdale in Arizona.
Patients told how or if the Botox Injection made a difference
in whether they had lost work days, social commitments and other
effects of headache pain.
Eross found that 58 percent of the patients had a 50 percent
or greater reduction in disability. The average decrease in headache
frequency was 61 percent; in severity it was 27 percent, and in
disability it was 79 percent.
"If you get an agent [a medicine for headache pain] that
helps with 60 percent, you are doing good," Eross says.
While the eventual goal is using Botox Injection alone, that
may not be feasible, Eross says. Most patients were also on other
medications.
Besides the Eross study, other headache researchers will report
on the value of Botox Injection for headache pain at the meeting.
Todd Troost, a researcher from Wake Forest University Baptist
Medical Center, found a success rate as high as 92 percent with
migraine patients using Botox Injection. When it works to relieve
pain, he finds, it also reduces the need for other medications.
Another study found that headache patients on Botox Injection
were able to take one-fourth of the medication taken by those
who didn't get Botox. Yet another study of 60 migraine patients
found those who got two Botox injection sessions over six months
had fewer headache days than those who got just one Botox Injection
session.
Even with this spate of studies, some experts say it's not enough.
"More studies are needed," says Dr. Steven Graff-Radford,
co-director of The Pain Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
in Los Angeles.
Another expert, Dr. Fred Freitag, associate director of the Diamond
Headache Clinic in Chicago, applauds the fact that Eross evaluated
actual disability from the headache pain: "It's great that
someone is using MIDAS [to assess actual disability] rather than
just frequency and severity."
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