Mary Padfield’s migraines began when she was 27. “It feels like someone has put your head in a vice,” she says. “I saw flashing lights, and the pain was always in the same place, just above my right eyebrow. I was always totally exhausted afterwards and it would take me at least a day or two to recover.”
Mary, now 67 and a retired magistrate who lives with her husband Nicholas, a QC, in London, was soon having two such attacks a month. She identified certain triggers, such as white wine, red wine, cheese, chocolate and sleep deprivation, and tried her best to avoid them – but still experienced regular bouts of terrible, nauseating head pain. Like many migraine sufferers, she found they struck most commonly on weekends – changes in routine often set off the headaches – meaning she’d spend them lying down in the dark, recovering.
Mary, now 67 and a retired magistrate who lives with her husband Nicholas, a QC, in London, was soon having two such attacks a month. She identified certain triggers, such as white wine, red wine, cheese, chocolate and sleep deprivation, and tried her best to avoid them – but still experienced regular bouts of terrible, nauseating head pain. Like many migraine sufferers, she found they struck most commonly on weekends – changes in routine often set off the headaches – meaning she’d spend them lying down in the dark, recovering.
She was prescribed sumatriptan, a medication that successfully stopped the headaches, although when she was pregnant with each of her six children, she had to come off it. “I couldn’t do anything about it, and they’d go on for three weeks at a time.”
One in seven people in the UK suffer with migraines – typically, a throbbing headache often associated with nausea, visual disturbances and sensitivity to light and sound – and twice as many women are affected as men.
Yet this highly debilitating condition is in desperate need of new treatments. The WHO estimates that 190 million working days are lost every year in the EU because of migraine, and American researchers recently reported that women who have migraines are at raised risk of heart disease. Last week came some welcome good news: trials of a new drug have shown it can cut by half the number of headaches endured by sufferers.
Mary admits migraine “ruled her life” – disrupting her ability to work, and to attend social occasions. “There was a permanent dread of the next attack,” she says.
After some years, Mary was advised to stop taking sumatriptan because long-term use could be harmful. Next, she tried Botox injections around the forehead, which have been proven to prevent migraines.
“It worked fine – until it wore off, and it was too expensive to keep paying for it every six months,” she says. “It also made me look a bit funny.”
Around eight years ago, she read about a new device for migraines – a headband, worn for 20 minutes a day across the forehead, which prevents attacks by sending electrical pulses to the brain.
The headband, called Cefaly, has been available for some years, but got a major boost in 2014 when it was approved by the US health regulator, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA).
Last month NICE, the UK regulator, published guidance stating that Cefaly is safe to be used for the treatment and prevention of migraine – meaning doctors can recommend it to patients. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it will become available on the NHS, though. The device can be bought online without prescription for £249 – and if it does not work, the manufacturer offers a partial refund.
“It worked fine – until it wore off, and it was too expensive to keep paying for it every six months,” she says. “It also made me look a bit funny.”
Around eight years ago, she read about a new device for migraines – a headband, worn for 20 minutes a day across the forehead, which prevents attacks by sending electrical pulses to the brain.
The headband, called Cefaly, has been available for some years, but got a major boost in 2014 when it was approved by the US health regulator, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA).
Last month NICE, the UK regulator, published guidance stating that Cefaly is safe to be used for the treatment and prevention of migraine – meaning doctors can recommend it to patients. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it will become available on the NHS, though. The device can be bought online without prescription for £249 – and if it does not work, the manufacturer offers a partial refund.
As for effectiveness, in one study regular use of Cefaly provided relief in around 40 per cent of migraine sufferers, compared with 50 to 60 per cent of those using medication. Other studies have shown the device allows migraine sufferers to significantly reduce the amount of medication they were taking for their head pain.
Cefaly is also attracting attention because of its non-invasive nature and few side-effects (aside from some discomfort and tingling while it is being used). This means it’s safe to be used even by pregnant women and children over the age of eight.
“I was a bit sceptical at first,” says Mary, “but I would have tried anything. It turned out to be absolutely brilliant.
“I have only had one migraine since I started using it. I can eat all the things that used to set me off, too.
“I’d read that it can make you look younger, which I didn’t care about really, but actually it does – because you’re no longer crunching your face up from all the migraines.”
Mary immediately told her daughter, Tabitha, who also suffers with migraine (the condition is thought to have a genetic link and often runs in families).
Tabitha, now 44 and a lawyer, had her first migraine when she was nine – however she also has epilepsy and so the mainstream treatments were not safe for her to use. She had to try and cope with regular over-the-counter painkillers.
“We were concerned that the electrical pulses that Cefaly uses could be harmful to my epilepsy, but we contacted the manufacturer and were told it was safe,” says Tabitha.
The device again had a dramatic effect, reducing Tabitha’s migraines from once a week to once every six weeks – the attacks have also become much less painful and debilitating.
Tabitha uses Cefaly preventatively, but also finds it helpful to use the device during an attack.
It’s not completely clear how neuro-stimulation devices like Cefaly work, says Dr Andrew Dowson, director of headache services at Kings College Hospital and a leading migraine specialist.
“In migraine, certain areas of the brain seem to be oversensitive to changes, which might be internal – such as menstrual periods or stress – or external, such as bright lights.
“We think that this sensitivity activates a nerve in the brain called the trigeminal nerve and its surrounding blood vessels, and this activation triggers messages that are felt as pain.”
Cefaly delivers electrical pulses to the trigeminal nerve, and seems to “retrain the brain” so it doesn’t respond to changes in such a way, Dr Dowson says.
The device again had a dramatic effect, reducing Tabitha’s migraines from once a week to once every six weeks – the attacks have also become much less painful and debilitating.
Tabitha uses Cefaly preventatively, but also finds it helpful to use the device during an attack.
It’s not completely clear how neuro-stimulation devices like Cefaly work, says Dr Andrew Dowson, director of headache services at Kings College Hospital and a leading migraine specialist.
“In migraine, certain areas of the brain seem to be oversensitive to changes, which might be internal – such as menstrual periods or stress – or external, such as bright lights.
“We think that this sensitivity activates a nerve in the brain called the trigeminal nerve and its surrounding blood vessels, and this activation triggers messages that are felt as pain.”
Cefaly delivers electrical pulses to the trigeminal nerve, and seems to “retrain the brain” so it doesn’t respond to changes in such a way, Dr Dowson says.
He says there’s still a need for more, better quality studies of Cefaly, comparing it directly to a placebo and to medication. “We haven’t found it universally helpful in our patients, but I think we should be cautiously optimistic.
“We have something here that’s relatively cheap, and works on a proportion of patients with very few side-effects – it has good evidence and obviously the FDA and Nice agree.”
Mary Padfield is delighted that she and her daughter have been able to free themselves from the tyranny of migraines.
Although she has not had a migraine for many years and thinks she’s “probably grown out of them”, she still uses her Cefaly headband twice a week and says she will continue to do so for the rest of her life.
“I am able to make plans and stick to them, stay up late if I want, eat what I want to and not spend my time worrying about when the next headache will hit.
“In short, migraine no longer puts limitations on my life.”
cefaly.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wellbeing/health-advice/could-this-headband-cure-your-migraine/
“We have something here that’s relatively cheap, and works on a proportion of patients with very few side-effects – it has good evidence and obviously the FDA and Nice agree.”
Mary Padfield is delighted that she and her daughter have been able to free themselves from the tyranny of migraines.
Although she has not had a migraine for many years and thinks she’s “probably grown out of them”, she still uses her Cefaly headband twice a week and says she will continue to do so for the rest of her life.
“I am able to make plans and stick to them, stay up late if I want, eat what I want to and not spend my time worrying about when the next headache will hit.
“In short, migraine no longer puts limitations on my life.”
cefaly.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wellbeing/health-advice/could-this-headband-cure-your-migraine/
