A new study, coming out of the Ohio State University Medical Center, has shown that a TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulator) is effective in stopping migraines before they attack. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (Medgadget search), a potentially useful clinical modality, uses an alternating magnetic field to influence electrical activity of the brain through magnetic induction. Till now, its usefulness has been thought to apply only to schizophrenia and treatment resistant depression.
From the Ohio State press release:
The device, called TMS, interrupts the aura phase of the migraine, often described as electrical storms in the brain, before they lead to headaches. Auras are neural disturbances that signal the onset of migraine headaches. People who suffer from migraine headaches often describe “seeing” showers of shooting stars, zigzagging lines and flashing lights, and experiencing loss of vision, weakness, tingling or confusion. What typically follows these initial symptoms is intense throbbing head pain, nausea and vomiting.
Dr. Yousef Mohammad, a neurologist at OSU Medical Center who presented the results, says that the patients in this study reported a significant reduction in nausea, noise and light sensitivity post treatment.
“Perhaps the most significant effect of using the TMS device was on the two-hour symptom assessment, with 84 percent of the episodes in patients using the TMS occurring without noise sensitivity. Work functioning also improved, and there were no side effects reported,” Mohammad said.
The stimulator sends a strong electric current through a metal coil, which creates an intense magnetic field for about one millisecond. This magnetic pulse, when held against a person’s head, creates an electric current in the neurons of the brain, interrupting the aura before it results in a throbbing headache…
“In our study sample, 69 percent of the TMS-related headaches reported to have either no or mild pain at the two-hour post-treatment point compared to 48 percent of the placebo group. In addition, 42 percent of the TMS-treated patients graded their headache response, without symptoms, as very good or excellent compared to 26 percent for the placebo group. These are very encouraging results.”
It was previously believed that migraine headaches start with vascular constriction, which results in an aura, followed by vascular dilation that will lead to a throbbing headache. However, in the late 1990s it was instead suggested that neuronal electrical hyperexcitability resulted in a throbbing headache. This new understanding of the migraine mechanism has assisted with the development of the TMS device.
The device may be as portable as a bazooka, but at least your coworkers will take your headaches more seriously if you whip this bad boy out in front of them.
The press release…
Website of Neuralieve Inc., a Sunnyvale, CA company, the maker of the above device…