New Migraine-Preventing Drug

With 15 to 20 migraines a month, Debbie Pearlman used to wish for an effective migraine treatment. "It's such agony and pain. The light bothers you, noise bothers you, just moving is complete and utter agony. Sometimes you get spots in front of your eyes. You get sick and you just want to be in complete darkness and silence without doing anything."

But now with her new migraine treatment, Debbie is down to only about one migraine a month. The difference is due to the fact that she has been put on medicine to help prevent the onset of migraines. Now, this week the FDA approved the use of one of the drugs she takes for the prevention of migraine headaches: Topamax. Topamax is among several drugs available being used either on or off-label for migraine prevention.

Dr Christine Lay, a neurologist with St. Luke's Roosevelt Headache Institute says, "One of the great things about Topamax is that while many of the migraine treatments available cause weight gain, Topamax does not cause weight gain. In a small percentage of patients they actually found that they had weight loss." 50% of migraine sufferers, perhaps 14 million Americans, suffer with frequent or severe disabling migraines.

The majority of those patients are not on a preventative drug. In most cases patients with frequent migraines can successfully decrease the number of seizures they have each month. But it takes time and patience while figuring out the right combination and dosages of medications for the individual person.

"You have to look at the patient as a whole. You have to look at how many headaches they are having, how severe they are, how quickly they come on, how long they last, and then you also have to look at other potential factors that may play a role.If a patient also has a little bit of a mood disorder, or suffers from mild depression, you might choose an anti-depression agent." says Dr. Lay.

Dr. Lay says a patient who is having one migraine a week is a candidate for preventative therapy even on a short term basis. That's because treating these headaches may change the future course of a patient's migraine and prevent the migraine from becoming worse over his or her lifetime.

While it's unrealistic to expect to get rid of all migraines, Dr. Lay says you can get rid of most. Just ask Debbie. "It's been a God-send and I don't know what I would have done with out these things." Debbie says, thankful for her new, effective migraine treatment.

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