For many, especially women, Botulinum toxin type A, or simply Botox, is the wonder drug that makes wrinkles disappear. But a recent study suggests that it may also be effective against migraine. The study findings suggest that Botox injections may cut down the incidence of migraine headaches describes as crushing, eye-popping or vicelike.
The study involving clinical trials of Botox used to treat face wrinkles has come upon a correlation between the use of the drug and reduced pain due to migraine. The study findings were published in the February issue of Archives of Dermatology.
The researchers said early hopes of a new prevention treatment for migraines needed to be supported by replicating results of the trials, since later research could not establish that the role of Botox was not only the result of placebo. The researches tried to isolate characteristics in migraine suffers that could predict when Botox might work.
Christine C. Kim, MD, a private practitioner from California, along with other colleagues studied 19 patients, aged around 50 years, who reported migraine attacks and had been given, or were planning to get Botox treatment for cosmetic purposes.
Ten of these patients described their headaches as imploding, using words such as “crushing”, “vice-like”, or “ocular”. They also said they felt as if an eye was popping out or a finger was being pushed into the eye. Nine patients described exploding headaches where, they said, it felt as if the head was about to explode or split open. Some patients suffered from more than one type of headache.
Three months after being treated, 13 patients said they obtained relief from the headaches. These included ten patients who described their headaches as imploding or ocular headaches and three who described them as exploding. The remaining six patients who did not find relief, all described their headaches as exploding.
From patients who reported relief, the frequency of the migraines dropped from an average of 6.8 days to 0.7 days in a month. In those with imploding or ocular headaches, the migraine episodes reduced from an average of 7.1 days to 0.6 days per month. In comparison, in those with exploding headaches who found relief, the frequency of migraine reduced from 11.4 to 9.4 days per month.
The researchers said that while Botox is known to cause muscle paralysis, this by itself could not account for the role of the drug in migraine pain prevention. This may have something to do with the its effect on the process by which pain signals are transmitted through the nervous system, or its ability to block pain receptors or relieve inflammation.
The researchers said that the study findings supported a hypothesis that Botox treatment was effective in reducing migraine pain in patients who had imploding and ocular headaches. However, they also said that more trials were required before the conclusions could be confirmed.