Botox helps smooth out migraine symptoms

Botox injections for chronic migraines

It's been used for years to erase wrinkles.Botox now has another application: to smooth the debilitating symptoms of migraines. It is expensive but for many, well worth the money and the pain.

When a migraine hits, down come the blinds to block out the light and out come the pills to block out the pain.  Miriam Fry suffers from chronic migraines , 2 or 3 of them a week.  She has had them for decades.

‘It just hurts, it really, really hurts,’ says Fry, ‘and you get so nauseous and dizzy.’

In fact she has one now, during this interview.

‘Can't you tell?’ she asks, as she squints into the camera light, ‘I took pain pills before you came.’

About half a million Canadians suffer from chronic migraines.  Aside from pain medication, there has been little they could do to alleviate the symptoms until recently, when an American doctor discovered an unusual side effect with those Botox injections so popular with Hollywood personalities.

‘A dermatologist giving cosmetic Botox had patients come back and said my headaches are better,’ explains Ottawa neurologist Dr. Lucian Sitwell.

Dr. Sitwell now treats about 16 patients a month in Ottawa with Botox injections.  They all suffer from chronic migraines, defined as having headaches half the month and migraines at least 8 of those days. The injections are costly, about $1000 every three months and involve multiple sites on the head and neck.

‘There's one in the mid-line, one on either side here,’ explains Dr. Sitwell, as he points to his forehead, ‘and part way through where the eye is above the eyebrow. It helps control the migraines but doesn't cure the migraine by any stretch of the imagination at least in most people.’

Health Canada approved the use of the drug for chronic migraines a couple of years ago. The research has been encouraging with most of the patients treated with Botox reporting improved functioning and quality of life.  They suffered fewer migraine episodes and fewer headaches per month.

That's good enough for Miriam Fry who is waiting to find out whether she is eligible for the injections.

‘The thought of being migraine free for 3 months is very, very enticing,’ says Fry, ‘so I'm willing to give it a try.’

She says, if the Botox helps smooth out a few of her wrinkles along the way; well, that’s an added bonus.