Migraine! If you are someone who has been on the rack of this agonizing ailment, you may quite understand the meaning of pain. Researchers however now promise a new breed of fast-acting and more effective drugs to help fight migraine.
Bringing much needed relief to those who suffer from migraine commonly characterized by bouts of painful headache, experts associated with this study are looking forward to these drugs as the next generation migraine treatment. Conducted by Dr Stephen D Silberstein, from the Thomas Jefferson University, in Philadelphia, the study claims that the new drugs called calcitonin gene-related peptides are twice as effective in comparison to original medications. It is also expected to relieve the sufferer from the pain over 24 hours.
“It looks like we are really on the cusp of a revolution in migraine treatment. Because these drugs work differently from previous medication they offer an exciting new way to deal with this condition, which can be debilitating for sufferers. Anything that could help migraineurs deal with their symptoms is vital. Also for people who cannot take triptans this could be an important breakthrough,†remarked, Lee Tomkins, the director of the Migraine Action Association.
While there has been very little growth in migraine therapy since the birth of drugs like triptan, calcitonin gene-related peptides should hopefully make way for a new way to deal with migraine. Triptan is the standard treatment for the condition since its inception 15 years ago. However clinical trials of the new drugs show that as against triptan, the effect of these drugs is longer lasting. In addition researchers found the dugs to double the number of patients who are still pain-free after 24 hours. So the number of pain-free individuals in this eminent test rose from almost 20% for triptan patients to nearly 40% for the patients who took the new drug.
Well the researchers claim the good news isn’t over yet. They reveal that these new drugs also bobbed up to provide relief to a larger numbers of patients within two hours of their symptoms starting. It also showed fewer side effects exposing a bright side that may help in transforming the way migraine patients are treated. Scientists mention that calcitonin gene-related peptides function by changing reactions in the brain that can bring on migraines to give you spells of harrowing headaches. Apparently, the drugs target an amino acid which is created during an attack, limiting its effect on the brain.
Scientists claim that the drugs are still in the clinical trial phase and may be available to patients within the next two to three years. Listed as one of the top 20 most debilitating conditions by the World Health Organisation, more than nine million people in Britain are thought to suffer from migraines. About 70 to 80% migraine patients are administered triptans that are know to zero down on a different chemical in the brain, serotonin, to fight the disease.
Published in the Lancet medical journal, lets hope the discovery of this revolutionary migraine drug proves fruitful to the millions who suffer from migraine.