Meds & Supplements, News & Research, Treatment

“New” Migraine Drugs

I’m so tired of seeing articles announcing a new migraine drug is in development, then discovering it’s an old drug with a different delivery system. These are not new drugs, even though press releases pretend that they are.

The investigation and marketing of these new routes will help patients. Gastric stasis and vomiting can impair the efficacy of a swallowed medication, so being able to bypass these complications is beneficial. Some people who have never gotten relief from a triptan before may find that they suddenly work when taking as an injection, nasal spray, patch or oral film. These are important points, but they don’t add up to something being a new drug.

If new migraine abortives were also being developed and reported, the investigation into new delivery routes for old drugs probably would not bother me. The problem is that I so desperately want new migraine drugs to be in development that these announcements always raise my hopes.

I know better, I really do. And knowing that — what the migraine research landscape looks like — may be the bleakest part of it all.

16 thoughts on ““New” Migraine Drugs”

  1. I get shots some times three times a month. I wake up everyday with a headache and it sucks it gets in the way of my life. I feel like no one understands what I’m talking about .I feel bad because some time my husband suffers when I don’t feel well and that bothers me. Now my doctor put me on one shot a month. It makes me feel like there nothing I can do about the shots help me take the heavy pain a little off. Now reading all of yours thoughts on migraine I know there more people that feel like me out there.
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    1. Linda, I’m sorry you’re struggling so much. You’re definitely not alone. I’m really curious what the shot is that you’re getting. Is it an acute treatment for migraine attacks or is it intended to prevent them? Best of luck sorting out your triggers and finding an effective treatment.

      Take care,
      Kerrie

  2. Migraine medicines are the worst. They are ALL the same just in a different wrapper. I would love to have one out there that ACTUALLY does what it claims…. stop a migraine. I am so frustrated, willing to try anything, only to be disappointed yet again and have my pocketbook empty after another failed drug

  3. The tryptans target the vascular system, don’t they? But since Migraine has migrated to a Neurological Disorder syndrome, is anything being researched as a neurological answer?

  4. My 13 year old son has been diagnosed with chronic migraines but Great Ormond Street hospital have picked up his heart rate and he is being investigated for Postural tachycardia syndrome. From looking at POTS website is could be the root of the migraines.

  5. I had a friend accidentally do this to me a couple of weeks ago. He was telling me about this “miracle” drug that completely cured his migraines. I had never heard of it. When I googled it, it was just a different name for imitrex.

  6. You know, in classical homeopathy, the remedies that served well 200 years ago, now are still as effective as they were then. There has been no need to withdraw even one. These remedies just do what they are supposed to do, each and every time. And that’s sort of a peaceful, and secure, feeling.

  7. I’m with you. It seems that migraine treatments in general are constantly being hyped up in news stories like they’re new, when I tried it or at least looked into it 15 years ago. Particularly angering are treatments that dont even have research for migraine yet, just anecdotes. More like urban myth by the time you sit in an office with the experts and find out the truth. Like a few years ago with all those stories about that hole-in-the-heart surgery. Oh sure – I’ll just go snip-snip into my HEART and fix that. Except it’s a bunch of crap compared to the hype. Then it’s pure exhaustion trying to explain “why not” to everyone you know.

    1. New treatments sound flashy and get attention, but anything truly new is years away from being available for patients. Anything already available has usually already been tried by those of us who have been actively searching for treatments for many years.

  8. Oops…we don’t “love” …but live in a private sector…ALONE…and invisible ….there’s no neon sign pointing to us saying “Migraines here”…I think I’ve made my point.

    Blessings
    Janet

  9. What a dead on comment!!!!!! Couldn’t have said it better myself. I’ve tried so many options that offer glimmers of hope only to be frustrated and disappointed over and over and over. Problem is, we who suffer chronically or however migraines appear in our lives, know what’s what. How do we get the government agencies to provide the research we need and move on it like other diseases and their research. We love in a private sector …invisible.

    1. What we really need is to make ourselves visible! We need to petition lawmakers and get involved in activism to raise awareness of migraine. The problem is that, generally, people with infrequent episodic migraine aren’t affected enough to be driven to speak up and those who do feel the impact are often too sick to do anything.

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