Theranica has announced the publication of a new study comparing the effectiveness of Remote electrical neuromodulation (REN) to that of standard-care medications for the acute treatment of chronic migraine. The post-hoc analysis—published in Pain Management—concludes that REN administered by Theranica’s flagship therapeutic wearable Nerivio provides an effective, non-pharmacological alternative for standard-care abortive medications in individuals impacted by chronic migraine.
“Chronic migraine is an especially disabling condition, diagnosed when a migraine patient experiences at least 15 migraine-induced headache days per month,” said Brian Grosberg (Hartford HealthCare Headache Center, West Hartford, USA), who served as the primary investigator of the study. “The recent consensus statement of the American Headache Society recommends that, in order to avoid medication overuse, patients with migraine who need to use acute treatments on a regular basis should be instructed to limit medication use to an average of two headache days per week.
“Chronic migraine patients often have four, five or even six headache days per week. To treat them effectively and safely, we must expand the first-line standard-care treatment options beyond prescribed medications. This research provides a strong comparison of REN to prescribed medications, mainly triptans, reinforcing the conclusion that REN provides a much-needed alternative to standard-care acute migraine treatment—without compromising effectiveness.”
Prospective data from 78 adult chronic migraine patients in the USA demonstrated effectiveness of REN across four parameters in comparison to standard-care medications in the study. The analysed parameters included single-treatment pain relief and pain freedom post-two hours, as well as consistent pain relief and pain freedom across multiple treatments.
In 62.8% of the patients, REN led to significant single-treatment pain relief two hours after treatment, as opposed to only 48.7% with medication usage (p=0.056 [McNemar Test]). Additionally, 64.1% of the patients achieved consistent pain relief with REN, compared to 57.7% when using standard-care medications. Single-treatment pain relief was achieved in 23.1% of migraine sufferers when using REN, in comparison to 19.2% with medication usage. Both REN and medication achieved 14.1% consistency of pain freedom across multiple treatments.
Worn on the upper arm at the onset of a migraine attack, Nerivio is a prescribed, digitally connected wearable that uses REN technology to alleviate migraine headache and associated symptoms by triggering an endogenous analgesic mechanism known as conditioned pain modulation (CPM). The device is controlled via a smartphone app, allowing patients to set the intensity of their treatment as well as maintain a built-in migraine diary that can easily be shared with physicians for improved migraine tracking and management, according to a Theranica press release.
