A preventive treatment in the form of injections manages for the first time to stop migraine attacks in patients with chronic headache.
Migraine is the most common neurological disease in France: its prevalence is estimated at nearly 20% of the adult population, with a female predominance (about 3 women for 1 man), according to the French Federation of Neurology. Although it can affect children and the elderly, it particularly affects people between the ages of 20 and 50.
In the most severe cases, the headache can occur every day, become disabling and alter the quality of life (functional and emotional slowdown and loss of productivity). “The result is that 35% of migraine sufferers in the general population have a loss of productivity of at least 6 days per quarter, and that for 20% of migraine sufferers this loss of productivity exceeds 11 days”, indicates the Federation.
Hope for patients
But as reported The world, a new preventive treatment has proven itself: monthly subcutaneous injections belonging to a new therapeutic family, anti-CGRP (Calcitonin Gene Relatide Peptide) monoclonal antibodies. Called Aimovig, this preventive treatment was put on the American and European markets in 2018, but is not yet available in France, its price still being discussed.
Its effectiveness, however, is without appeal. “I have resumed the course of my life. It’s as if they had taken off a lead coat, including the hood”, says Stéphanie on a daily basis, seven months after starting a one-year protocol. This medical secretary from Nice has less than 5 migraine days per month, compared to 28 days before the treatment. The intensity of the pain is also less strong and the hypersensitivity of his skull which persisted between attacks has disappeared.
For Stéphanie, who organized her daily life according to her crises, the results of this treatment are relief and liberation. If it is still not reimbursed in June, at the end of the protocol from which she benefited, Stéphanie will have to finance it herself and pay between 600 and 1000 dollars per injection to maintain this quality of life.
Some side effects observed during testing
So far, no treatment has been able to stop the onset of migraine attacks. Patients had to lie in the dark and wait for the pain to pass, a crippling disability that plunges some into severe depression. During tests carried out in the United States, some side effects such as skin reactions or constipation were observed, but nothing comparable to the ordeal experienced by the most affected patients. These injections are therefore a real hope for migraine sufferers.
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