Health Conditions

What is on the horizon?

While headaches are not unbearable for most individuals, research on potential headache treatments will continue to be very active simply because so many individuals do have occasional headaches. The resulting loss of productivity reaches several million hours per year. Both medications and non-medication treatments are under study.

Recently, the National Headache Foundation announced clinical trials evaluating current headache medicines being delivered in potentially more efficient ways - such as through the skin, nasal passages, or even the lungs. The following are some new delivery methods of headache medications that are currently being studied:

• The skin patch, Actyve(TM) by Vyteris, will release zolmitriptan by low electrical energy in the patch.
• DHE Nasal Powder by Britannia Pharmaceuticals with Novartis Pharmaceuticals, sprays powdered dihydroergotamine into the sinuses for faster absorption.
• Nasal capsaicin spray is proposed to help block the brain from knowing that there is pain. Capsaicin is usually found in topical creams over the counter to help with pain from cuts, scratches, burns, and other minor skin injuries that are causing discomfort.
• Another type of inhalation device using heat propels the drug prochlorperazine into the lungs for a faster rate of absorption into the body.
• Maybe the most interesting new medical idea is the carbon dioxide inhaler to be used for sinus headaches. This device will send carbon dioxide gas into one nostril simply to open up the nasal passageway.

Other medications that currently treat health conditions not associated with migraines are now being looked at to help relieve headaches. Some of these are oxcarbazepine, doxepin, donepezil, diclofenac, potassium, and calcitonin.

There is also a new migraine research study focusing on implanting a medical device into the migraine sufferer and stimulating major nerves thought to be associated with headache. Precision(TM), Genesis(TM), Medronic Synergy(TM), etc. are a few of the devices, some of these have been approved for other pain conditions however, none has been approved for treating migraines.

Finally, an experimental technique called thermography, which is used for diagnosing headache, is another area of intense investigation. In thermography, an infrared camera converts skin temperature into a color picture, or thermogram, with different degrees of heat appearing as different colors. Researchers have found that thermograms of headache patients show heat patterns that differ from those of people who never or rarely get headaches. Ways to change heat patterns may help to relieve headaches.