The wrinkle-smoother drug Botox may help migraine patients get through more days without painful headaches, according to two studies presented this week at a research conference.
Botox is a purified form of the poison botulinum and is used to treat wrinkles in facial skin as well as for a number of psastic disorders. It is injected into the skin by a doctor and works by temporarily paralyzing the muscles underneath.
Scientists don't know how Botox works to prevent migraines but one theory is that it may desensitize nerves that detect pain.
Now, two trials presented at the International Headache Congress in Philadelphia are showing modest but promising results. Both studies were funded by Allergan, the maker of Botox.
In two randomized, double-blind studies, Botox was tested on more than 3,300 patients who had chronic migraines, that is: those who have headaches on 15 or more days a month.
In the first study, half the group received Botox injections into the site where they felt the most headache pain, while the other half received a fake treatment. They were tracked for 24 weeks.
Those patients who had received Botox had 7.8 fewer days per month when they had any kind of headaches including migraines. That compared with 6.4 fewer headache days among the placebo group.
In the second trial, patients getting Botox injections had nine fewer days of migraines per month, compared with 6.7 with a dummy treatment.
The first trial's main goal was to lessen the number of headache episodes compared with a placebo, and the trial failed on that measure. But it succeeded on the secondary goal of cutting headache days.
Due to the result, Allergan switched the second study's goals. That study was successful on both headache days and episodes.
"Botox significantly reduced headache-related disability and improved functioning and overall quality of life," the authors report, noting that the Botox treatment was well-tolerated by the patients.
