When painkillers for migraines also give you a headache, another drug could help

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-09-17 01:00

International

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People with migraines who take too many painkillers can end up with chronic headaches caused by their medication, but an international trial suggests another anti-migraine drug - Erenumab - could help these painkiller-induced headaches go away. The team, funded by the developers of this drug, recruited 584 people who had chronic headaches from overusing non-opioid painkillers, and gave half a monthly dose Erenumab while the other half received a placebo treatment. The researchers say in the Erenumab group, 60.3% no longer had these headaches after six months, compared to 52.6% of the placebo group.

Media release

From: JAMA

About The Study: In this study, monthly, 140 mg erenumab injections safely and effectively achieved medication overuse headaches remission in patients with nonopioid chronic migraine and medication overuse headaches within 6 months.

Quote from corresponding author Stewart J. Tepper, MD:

“Those patients with medication overuse headache (MOH) have higher disability and a significant unmet clinical need. Erenumab proved effective versus placebo in significantly higher rates of MOH remission and marked reduction in days in which acute migraine treatment was taken in a randomized controlled trial, with these benefits sustained through a one- year open label treatment period.

“The change for clinical care will be that practitioners can start patients with MOH on erenumab and expect a likelihood of MOH remission for most without other interventions, such as planned wean, inpatient detoxification, or behavioral therapies. This will simplify and improve care of MOH patients.”

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Research JAMA, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: JAMA Neurology

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The New England Institute for Neurology and Headache, USA

Funder: This study was funded by Amgen. Erenumab is codeveloped in partnership with Amgen and Novartis.We thank the study investigators and participants for their participation and commitment to this work. Medical writing support was provided by Eugene Gillespie, PhD, Amgen.

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