Migraine Breakthrough

Millions of people in the UK are plagued with migraines. Some people think of them as a bad headache but they cause a crowd of symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, light and noise sensitivity and fatigue. There are currently only treatments that can reduce the symptoms of migraines; there is no cure. These treatments aren’t always effective and many have side effects. It is a very common condition that affects one in every five women and around one in every 15 men. The cause of migraines is unknown so it is very hard to find effective treatments. The current treatments include painkillers, triptans (medication that can help reverse the changes in the brain that may cause migraines) and anti-emetics (medication that is often used to reduce nausea and vomiting).

Erenumab is a new drug that has been proven to prevent migraine attacks and might be open for use as early as next year. They are monoclonal antibodies which block the receptor of CGRP (calcitonin gene-related peptide) in the brain – a protein which is known to be involved with migraines. One of the trials called STRIVE tested erenumab as a preventative for episodic migraines in 955 patients across 121 study sites over the span of six months. Half of the patients tested with a high dose experienced a 50% or greater reduction of their average number of migraine days. Potential side effects that were reported in the study were similar between those taking placebo and those taking erenumab which suggests they may not be specific to the drug.

The limitations of the trial however, were that the study didn’t include people who had found no effect from more than 2 classes of migraine prevention drugs, so it isn’t known whether it works on these people. The study also didn’t include people with chronic migraines. As well as this the trial period was six months which may not be long enough to make all the side effects known. The trial did continue though for safety analysis so more information may be released. We also do not know if it works for everyone and some people may not have any improvements.

There is also another drug called fremanezumab which has recently shown to treat chronic migraines. In testing it was able to reduce the average number of migraine days more than erenumab. This might be because, unlike erenumab, it is able to target the CGRP molecule itself. More research is going to be needed to determine whether or not either drug is able to continue working and remain safe in the long term.

However, it is predicted that the injections of these new drugs could cost around £6000. This will prove difficult for many patients as they would have to pay that much to see effective reduction in their migraines.

Overall, the drugs have to be approved and then assessed by NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), who will then decide whether or not it should be prescribed on the NHS. Either way these drugs are breakthroughs in medicine as there has been so little development in treating migraines and if these drugs prove successful it will improve millions of people’s lives.

I hope you found this interesting and thank you for reading.
Written by Lizzie Nash

Sources:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/migraine/
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/migraine-drug-erenumab-headache-treatment-important-breakthrough-a8084181.html
https://www.sciencealert.com/new-migraine-drug-cgrp-erenumab-fremanezumab-clinical-trials-amgen-novartis-teva
https://www.nhs.uk/news/medication/new-drug-shows-promise-preventing-migraines/

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