PPOA Embraces Many New Migraine Treatment Options –

A drug-free, wearable migraine treatment controlled by a smartphone offers new hope for the 30 million sufferers in the United States. It was recently cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use with acute migraine.

An Israeli company developed the device, called Nerivo Migra. Placed on the upper arm, it uses a technology called remote electroical neuromodulation (REN): weak electrical pulses disrupt pain signals to the brain.

It consists of electrodes attached to the arm, a patch containing a battery, and a chip that wirelessly connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth signal.

In a study of 252 migraine patients, two thirds experienced pain relief in about two hours, with effects lasting up to 48 hours.

Doctors at Physician Partners of America, always seeking cutting-edge treatments for pain conditions, are following this development with interest.

“This device has tremendous potential for treatment of acute migraine episodes,” says Dr. Aaron Miranda, PPOA pain management specialist in Carrollton, Texas. Migraine pain relief is among his specialties. “There are a growing number of treatments including new medications, nerve blocks and Botox, which give patients and providers many possible options which can be tailored to each individual.”

In addition to Botox injections as a migraine treatment, PPOA doctors use other modalities, such as anti-CGRP monthly injectable medications for migraine prevention, occipital nerve blocks, sphenopalatine ganglion blocks and radiofrequency ablation.

Another PPOA provider, Dr. Lesco Rogers in Winter Haven, Fla., has also developed a migraine headache treatment, ThermoNeuroMondulation (TNM). It uses a special headphone device to supply heating and cooling sensations to the head. TNM earned FDA approval for home use in March 2018.

Common medications also used to control migraine headaches include triptans, beta-blockers and tricyclic antidepressants. However, finding drug-free ways to treat pain is a goal of PPOA and many in the interventional pain management community.

Not only are prescribing laws changing in the face of the opioid crisis; long-term use of some medications can have side effects and can make migraine headaches worse over time.

“[T]here is a great unmet need for alternative acute migraine treatments that are both effective and well tolerated,” the study authors conclude. “Non‐invasive neuromodulation is safe, well tolerated, and may have fewer adverse effects than drugs.”

The Nerivo Migra migraine treatment should be available in the U.S. sometime in 2019, Pain News Network reports.

Read the results of the Nerivo Migra study in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain.