Neuromodulation in the Treatment of Migraine: Progress in Nerve Stimulation
Abstract
Migraine is a type of primary headache disorder that can become chronic and disabling. The exact pathomechanism of migraine is not known very well and its treatment is also difficult in some cases. There are several medications for the acute and preventive treatment of migraine including the “triptan” family drugs, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, anti-epileptic drugs, beta-blockers, and Ca2+-channel blockers1 and those against calcitonin gene-related peptide or its receptor that are reviewed elsewhere.2 However, there are some medically intractable headaches or patient management is unsatisfactory or medications are poorly tolerated3 or there are contraindications. Therefore, neuromodulation and nerve stimulation methods that have proven effective in clinical research may provide an additional treatment option for acute and preventive treatment of migraine. In this brief review, we will discuss recent advances using neuromodulatory techniques that are currently used in the treatment of headaches in clinical studies. These include the electrical stimulation of occipital nerve, sphenopalatine ganglion, supraorbital nerve, and transcutaneous electrical stimulation of vagus nerve as well as single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation. Several clinical studies have conducted neurostimulation for the acute and preventive treatment of migraine in recent years but more studies are necessary to see their efficacy and long-term effect.
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Citation
Samsam, M., & Ahangari, R. (2017). Neuromodulation in the treatment of migraine: Progress in nerve stimulation. Neuro Open Journal, 3(1), 9-22. https://doi.org/10.17140/NOJ-3-122