An electronic device to aid the migraine

A hand-held electronic device helps 'zap' away migraine pain before it starts, may be the next form of relief for millions of people who suffer from the debilitating disease, US researchers suggested yesterday.

Results of a study discovered that the experimental device, “zapper gun" appears to be effective in eliminating the headache when administered during the onset of the migraine, experts said.

The device, called TMS is held against the back of the head of someone feeling a headache starting. It blasts a pulse of magnetic energy which triggers an electric current in nerve cells in the brain to stop a light headache developing into a migraine. The device delivers a strong electric current through a metal coil, which creates an intense magnetic field for about one millisecond.

In fact, the device interrupts the neural disturbances or aura phase of the migraine, often described as electrical storms in the brain, before they lead to headaches. Auras are neural disorders that signal the onset of migraine headaches. The migraine headaches sufferers often report “seeing” showers of shooting stars, zigzagging lines and flashing lights, and experiencing loss of vision, weakness, tingling or confusion. What typically follow these initial symptoms are intense throbbing head pain, nausea and vomiting.

The study, led by the Ohio State University Medical Center neurology investigators, was presented today (June, 22) at the annual American Headache Society meeting in Los Angeles.

In a meeting, at the American Headache Society, Dr. Yousef Mohammad, a neurologist at OSU Medical Center who released the study results, said 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% of the episodes in patients using the TMS occurring without noise sensitivity. Work functioning also improved, and there were no side effects reported,” Mohammad, who is chief investigator of the study at Ohio State, said.

“The device’s pulses are painless. The patients have felt a little pressure, but that’s all,” said Mohammad.

In the study, of 23 TMS treated patients, 69% reported to have either no or meek pain two hours after treatment compared with 48% of the placebo group. Moreover, 42% of the patients treated with TMS, ranked their lack of symptoms as very good or excellent compared to 26% for placebo. The massive majority TMS-treated patients had no noise sensitivity and over half had no light sensitivity.

The experimental device is being developed by Sunnyvale, Californian based firm NeuraLieve, which anticipates to market it around the world. However, the firm provided the funding and equipment for the study, but Mohammad has no other financial relationship or affiliation with the company.

Although the findings were interesting, but UK experts warned the device is needed to be examined in a much larger study.