First drug designed to prevent Migraine approved by the eu

[Tightsonatrain]

www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jul/31/first-ever-pill-to-prevent-chronic-migraines-approved-by-eu

Very exciting- will be available privately in around 6 weeks (at around £400/month) and will be reviewed by NICE early next year.

[BillywilliamV]

Propanolol worked for me

[Tightsonatrain]

I feel like I should add that the cost of chronic patients (over 15 days effected a month) from acute drugs, neurology referrals, a&e visits and inability to work far outweighs the drugs heavy price tag

[Tightsonatrain]

@BillywilliamV you’re very lucky! Unfortunately there remains a large number of people who don’t respond to the current preventatives or have such severe side effects it would be dangerous to continue (around 600,000 in uk)

[scaryteacher]

I was prescribed an ergotamine inhaler in the late 80s/early 90s. It worked wonders for me. A couple of puffs and the pain went and I could function.

[Tightsonatrain]

Acute treatments like ergotamine and triptans are great when they work @scaryteacher but patients are recommended to limit their use to 8 days per month

Patients with chronic migraine (>15 days per month) are therefore suffering through a lot of untreated attacks

[scaryteacher]

Tights At the time, there was no limit suggested, just use at the first sign of an attack. The thing that stopped my migraines was getting pregnant, 23 years on from that almost and I get a migraine perhaps 5 times a year as opposed to weekly ones.

[Goingalonenow]

OP I'm in the "tried everything" camp.

I have to restrict my triptan use. I've tried beta blockers, botox, acupuncture, topomax and a whole host of other things.

So, so excited about this.

[SluttyButty]

That's good news. My daughter is on propranolol which has helped considerably with her three migraines a week. But it's lowering her blood pressure and that's now having an effect on her health.

[kikashi]

I'm excited too. I had chronic migraine but it seems to have morphed into Migraine associated vertigo of late - chronic too, so basically feel dizzy a lot of the time.

I have also tried lots of terrible drugs and was told to limit triptans (although they don' work for the dizziness) had occipital nerve blocks etc and now have a GP who won't refer me to ENT or discuss any treatment plan or trying any drugs so I've felt a bit lost after 25 years of this crap. This drug sounds hopeful and the man who discovered it and whose team did the lab research has really kindly given up his intellectual property rights - hero, so that drug companies could develop it and hopefully charge a reasonable rate.

[Jux]

I find propranalol OK, but only OK. I do still get migraines but they're not as bad or as frequent. Before it was prescribed I had Naramig which was really good but you can only use it for so long and I'd been using it for over 5 years (maybe 10). It also couldn't be taken every time.

I was getting the aura all the time, literally. It would be there for 15mins and then a 10 min break, then it would be back again. I was always confused, not really with it, had visual hallucinations, loss of balance etc etc etc. I still get the auras and aome confusion and sickness about twice a week with propranalol.

I'm excited that in a couple of years they may be prescribing me a real preventative.