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| |  DG DISPATCH - AASH: Botox Effective As Migraine Prophylaxis By Alice Goodman Special to DG News SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- October 25 1999 -- A single treatment comprising three injections of Botox (botulinum toxin type A), a biological treatment, has been found to be effective as migraine prophylaxis for up to three months. These are the results of a multi-center, prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 123 patients diagnosed with episodic migraine, according to International Headache Society (IHS) criteria.
Dr. Ninan Mathew, Director of the Houston Headache Clinic, in Houston, TX,.reported these results at the Headache Symposium of the American Association for the Study of Headache (October 22-24, 1999), in Scottsdale, AZ. The researchers randomized patients to receive 0, 25, or 75 U Botox, injected symmetrically into the pericranial glabellar, frontalis, and temporalis muscles. For three months following the injections, subjects kept headache diaries to record their headache activity. Baseline frequency of migraine attacks per month was 4.44 for the control group, 4.45 for the group treated with Botox 25 U, and 3.95 for the group that received injections of 75U. Patients who received Botox 25 U had a reduction in moderate-severe migraine frequency during days 31-90, a reduction in mild-severe headache frequency during days 61-90, a reduction in maximum severity of migraine during days 0-60, a reduction in number of days with acute migraine medication used during days 31-60, a reduction in incidence of headache-associated vomiting during days 61-90, and improvement in patient global assessment during days 31-60. Similar results were observed in the 75 U group. In general, no serious treatment-related adverse events were observed in either treatment group, although the higher dose was associated with significantly more treatment-related adverse events compared to the 25 U group. Migraine prophylaxis is an expanded use of Botox, which is approved for conditions associated with muscle spasm, including blepharospasm, cervical dystonia and spasticity. It is also used cosmetically to treat skin wrinkles. Further studies of Botox in migraine and chronic daily headache are being conducted.
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