Migraine "Gun" Zaps Pain With The Touch Of Button - FDA Close To Approving Device That Uses Magnetic Bursts To Stop Pain

Main Category: Headache / Migraine
Also Included In: Pain / Anesthetics
Article Date: 28 Jun 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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There are some 30 million Americans who suffer from migraine headaches.* Researchers at Ohio State University Medical Center have unveiled a new device that can control the pain of migraine headaches with no drugs, no injections, and no side effects. In fact this device is as easy as touching a button.

After nearly eight years of development the migraine zapper could be on the market in a matter of months. As it's name suggests the migraine zapper can quickly stop the pain of a migraine headache which can plague some patients for days.

"They turn on the device and put it at the back of the brain. And in a few seconds it will have one pulse, like a tick, and then they have another pulse. And that's it," says Yousef Mohammad, MD, at Ohio State University Medical Center.

It was Doctor Mohammad and his team at Ohio State University Medical Center who helped develop the device, doing so for people like Christina Sidebottom. She's suffered from migraine headaches since she was 10 years old, and can only find relief by giving herself painful injections. They don't work every time.

"When they don't I have to go to the local emergency room, wait around for 2, 3 hours before I'm seen, and then have Demerol, which knocks me out for anything between 12 and 15 hours," says Sidebottom.

This device works without any drugs and has no lasting side effects. In fact, it works simply by sending a magnetic pulse through the brain. Researchers believe that migraines are the result of so called "electrical storms" in the brain that aggravate nerve endings, so by sending a quick electrical pulse, this device short circuits that process and stops the pain.

"In this case, instead of treating electricity with medications, we're treating electricity with electricity," says Mohammad.

Christina Sidebottom was one of the first patients in the world to test the migraine zapper, and after getting relief from her pain that she rarely finds anywhere else, she says she'll be one of the first to sign up for it once it's on the market.

*Migraine, National Headache Foundation, retrieved from their website June 2008, at http://www.headaches.org

Ohio State and Nationwide Children's Hospital
http://www.nationwidechildrens.org
http://medicalcenter.osu.edu