Wireless arm patch may help reduce migraine pain: study

There may be a new, drug-free way for migraine sufferers to control their pain with an electronic arm patch.

A preliminary study suggests that a wireless stimulation patch placed on a patient’s upper arm can help reduce migraine pain.

The patch, made by Israel-based Theranica Ltd., consists of rubber electrodes and an electronic chip on an armband. The device, called Nerivio, uses electrical stimulation to block pain signals from reaching the brain, and can be controlled with a smartphone app.

The study, funded by Theranica and published in Neurology journal, involved 71 people who had two to eight migraine attacks per month and had not taken any preventive migraine medication for at least two months.

The participants were asked to apply the patch on their upper arm as soon as they felt a migraine developing and use it for 20 minutes. They were also asked not to take any migraine medications for two hours.

The devices were programmed to randomly give either a placebo stimulation at a very low frequency or one of four levels of active stimulation. During the active stimulation at the three highest levels, 64 percent of study participants reported that their pain reduced by at least 50 per cent two hours after the treatment.

By comparison, 26 per cent of people who had the placebo stimulation reported reduced pain.

Researchers also found that the Nerivio patch was more effective when used within 20 minutes of the migraine onset.

Dr. David Yarnitsky, a neurologist with the Technion Faculty of Medicine in Haifa, Israel, and a member of Theranica’s medical advisory board, said the electronic patch produced results similar to those seen with triptan medications. Triptans are commonly prescribed to treat migraines and cluster headaches.

In a news release, Dr. Yarnitsky said the patch results are “exciting,” but need to be confirmed with additional studies.

The Nerivio patch is currently only approved for clinical investigations in the United States.

In the past, hand-held electronic devices and an electronic headband were also tested on migraine patients with some promising results.

An estimated 2.7 million Canadians reported being diagnosed with a migraine in 2010/11, according to a Statistics Canada report. But researchers believe the actual number of migraine sufferers is vastly underreported, since many people don’t seek medical help or get a proper diagnosis.