Headache and Migraine

A group of experts in the care of patients with neurological conditions—Amynah Pradhan, PhD; Katherine Podraza, MD, PhD; Elizabeth K. Seng, PhD; Olivia Begasse de Dhaem, MD, FAHS; Sait Ashina, MD, FAHS—shared their perspectives on hot topics of treatment and management in headache/migraine from the 2023 American Headache Society Annual Scientific Meeting.

The pain management specialist and headache neurologist at the University of California San Diego Center for Pain Medicine discussed the different forms of cannabis and the need to conduct larger, multicenter studies to better understand its effects in migraine. [WATCH TIME: 3 minutes]

As part of our monthly clinician spotlight, NeurologyLive® highlighted migraine expert Jason J. Sico, MD, MHS, national director of the Headache Centers of Excellence program within the Veterans Health Administration.

The professor of anesthesiology at Washington University in St. Louis provided insight on his presentation at AHS 2023 discussing the need to engage underserved populations.

Here's some of what is coming soon to NeurologyLive® this week.

The assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School talked about the prevalence of tension-type headache and how recent advances shed light on its pathophysiological mechanisms, leading to potential new treatments for the condition. [WATCH TIME: 5 minutes]

Test your neurology knowledge with NeurologyLive®'s weekly quiz series, featuring questions on a variety of clinical and historical neurology topics. This week's topic is neuromuscular disorders.

Neurology News Network for the week ending June 24, 2023. [WATCH TIME: 3 minutes]

Take 5 minutes to catch up on NeurologyLive®'s highlights from the week ending June 23, 2023.

The research project manager of the headache program at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia discussed data that suggest that an unhealthy and imbalanced microbiome may exacerbate the frequency, severity, and duration of migraines. [WATCH TIME: 4 minutes]

B U. K. Li, MD, emeritus professor of pediatrics and gastroenterology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, highlights the significant overlap between cyclic vomiting syndrome, abdominal migraine, and migraine headaches.

Over an 8-week period, patients with migraine and major depressive disorder who were treated with fremanezumab showed significant reductions in HAMD-17 and PHQ-9 scores.

The headache specialist at Hartford Healthcare Headache Center talked about her debate at AHS 2023 on why migraine is not a risk factor for dementia. [WATCH TIME: 5 minutes]

CHALLENGE-MIG, a 3-month study, is the first trial to compare the efficacy of 2 previously approved calcitonin gene-related peptide antagonists in the treatment of migraine.

Following the initiation or switch to a new migraine preventive medication, patients taking galcanezumab showed numerically greater 3-month improvements for most measures of health-related quality of life and disability.

The associate professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic discussed the developing field of migraine management during pregnancy and the importance of raising awareness of treatment options during the gestation period. [WATCH TIME: 4 minutes]

At the 2023 AHS Annual Meeting, the chief of headache at UT Austin Dell Children’s Hospital discussed her presentation on a new educational intervention to improve knowledge of pediatric headache.

The combination of both REN and gepants for acute migraine treatment may have an increased efficacy compared with REN alone, an expected result based on the different actions of the treatments.

The director of the Pediatric Headache Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia talked about the usage of an integrated EHR questionnaire to improve the likelihood of specific diagnosis in pediatric headache. [WATCH TIME: 5 minutes]

Walter Koroshetz, MD, director of the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the NIH, provided perspective on the advances in migraine treatment, and the next steps in research needed over the coming years.

The pain management specialist and headache neurologist at the University of California San Diego Center for Pain Medicine provided perspective on how cannabis may be used in the management of migraine as more evidence is uncovered. [WATCH TIME: 3 minutes]

Data showed similar rates of discontinuation because of adverse events between those with and without CGRP monoclonal antibodies, as well as no serious AEs observed for those on concomitant medication.

The postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School discussed the relationship between sensory neurons and the neuropeptide CGRP in regulating gut immunity. [WATCH TIME: 6 minutes]

The use of intravenous ketamine in pediatric patients with refractory headaches resulted in a median pain reduction of 50% at discharge and nearly two-third of patients did not need further rescue therapies 1 month posttreatment.

The associate professor at Yeshiva University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine discussed the significance of recognizing the behavioral aspects of migraine management such as lifestyle choices, medical interventions, and societal influences. [WATCH TIME: 4 minutes]

Here's some of what is coming soon to NeurologyLive® this week.

The headache specialist at the Hartford Healthcare Headache Center discussed a study that explored changes in the vasculature and retinal blood perfusion of the eye during migraine attacks. [WATCH TIME: 5 minutes]

Compared with the overall population, outcomes for the coprimary end points of pain freedom and freedom from most bothersome symptom at 2 hours postdose remained superior in rimegepant-treated individuals.

The director of the Neuroinformatics Program at the University of California, Irvine, provided insight on the use of self-organizing maps to cluster different groups of patients with migraine. [WATCH TIME: 4 minutes]

Atogepant 60 mg once daily group had significantly larger reductions in mean monthly migraine days across weeks 1-12 and weeks 9-12, with no statistical difference in treatment-emergent adverse events or all-cause discontinuation.