Allergan’s Botox, given in the doses used to reduce facial wrinkles, may stop certain kinds of migraines that patients describe as crushing or "eye-popping," a study found.
Patients who responded to Botox reported their migraines were reduced to fewer than one day a month, from almost seven, according to a study of 18 people published in the Archives of Dermatology. The researchers said people with migraine pain called "imploding" — that felt like a vise was tightened around their heads — were helped more than those whose migraine pain felt "explosive."
Medical trials have reported inconsistent data on how much Botox helps reduce migraine pain, the researchers said.
Irvine, Calif.-based Allergan has filed for approval with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market Botox as a treatment for chronic migraines, which affects about three million Americans, company spokeswoman Crystal Muilenburg said.
"This could revolutionize the way people with these migraines are treated," said one author of the study, Jeffrey Dover, an associate clinical professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. "It was the imploding headaches that responded and the ocular headaches. They required little to no pain medication for headaches in the months after their Botox treatment."
The study, which was released Monday, was funded in part by Allergan and the National Institutes of Health.
Migraine treatments include over-the-counter painkillers, as well as Topamax, made by Johnson & Johnson of New Brunswick, and GlaxoSmithKline’s Imitrex. Map Pharmaceuticals is developing an inhaled migraine therapy called Levadex.
Botox, a purified form of the poison botulinum, is administered by doctors as an injection. It is approved as a short-term treatment to smooth wrinkles in facial skin by temporarily paralyzing the muscles underneath. Americans underwent almost 2.5 million Botox procedures in 2008, the latest year for which data are available, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
In the study, the researchers gave patients a dose of Botox used for cosmetic purposes, which was lower than doses previously used to treat migraines, Dover said.
-- Bloomberg News