ElectroCore’s non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) demonstrates efficacy in preventing cluster headache and menstrual migraine
The results of two studies, presented at the American Headache Society (AHS) Science Meeting last weekend in San Diego, show that using electroCore’s non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) therapy, gammaCore®, is effective at preventing both cluster headache and menstrual migraine. Cluster headache is considered one of the most painful conditions known to medical science with more than three hundred and fifty thousand patients in the US, and approximately one hundred thousand patients in the UK, suffering from this debilitating condition.
Menstrual and menstrually related migraine sufferers form one the largest distinct subgroups of migraine patients, and is generally considered to be one of the most resistant to existing treatments.
New results from the PREVA study, a randomized, prospective, controlled study of nVNS for the prevention of chronic cluster headache, was led by Dr. Charly Gaul from the Migraine and Headache Clinic, in Konigstein, Germany.
The study found that, “As early as two weeks after adding gammaCore therapy to the standard of care, patients had a significant and sustained reductions in cluster headache attack frequency. This was also associated with significantly greater >25%, >50%, and 75%, response against standard of care.”
Researchers from the Headache Center, Carlo Besta Neurological Institute and Foundation, Milan, Italy, the Headache and Pain Unit, Istituti di Ricovero e Cura Carattere Scientifico, San Raffaele Pisana, Rome, Italy, and the Carolina Headache Institute presented the results of their open-label pilot study of nVNS for the prevention of menstrual migraine and menstrually related migraine.
The study found that prophylaxis with nVNS was effective in significantly reducing the number of menstrual migraine/menstrually related migraine days per month as well as pain intensity, analgesic use, and migraine disability. These findings demonstrate that nVNS may be an effective and safe preventative measure against menstrual and menstrually related migraine. There are currently no specifically approved therapies for menstrual migraine.
“This is a significant result for the many millions of women who suffer from this debilitating condition on a monthly basis,” commented Dr. Grazzi from the Headache centre at the Carlo Besta Neurological Institute in Milan Italy who led the study. “The treatment, which is self-administered by the patient using a gammaCore device, is easy to use and without any significant side effects.”
Notes to editors
About electroCore
electroCore LLC, the New Jersey based bioelectric pharma company, is focused on developing non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation therapies (the gammaCore device) for the treatment of multiple conditions in neurology, psychiatry, gastroenterology, and respiratory fields. The company’s initial target is the treatment of primary headaches (migraine and cluster headache), and the associated chronic co-morbidities of gastric motility, psychiatric, sleep, and pain disorders that drive disproportionately large direct and indirect costs within the healthcare system and society. In Germany gammaCore is distributed by Desitin.