News

New Migraine Help for Women

Thursday, August 16, 2007

August 16, 2007 (WPVI) -- An FDA decision is expected any day that would allow the drug Frova to become the first to prevent the migraines that come with a woman's monthly cycle.

We first told you about a new approach to migraine pain back in June when it was still in the testing phase. Now, an FDA decision is expected any day that would allow the drug Frova to become the first to prevent the migraines that come with a woman's monthly cycle.

Headache experts said during a migraine attack the nerves on the surface of the brain are overly excited.

One of the triggers is hormonal that's why more women than men suffer from these debilitating headaches. And many women, like Jennine Fabioneri, get the worst migraines with their periods.

"Usually starts here in my temples and then moves to the back of my head, feels like a throbbing piercing pain," Jennine said. "They are often longer-lasting; they can last 1 to 2, even 3 days."

Jennine helped Dr. Stephen Silberstein of the Jefferson Headache Center test the migraine medication Frova in a whole new way. Instead of waiting for the menstrual migraine to hit Jennine and other women took a double dose of Frova a couple days before their period and then regular daily doses for the next five or six days.

Women who do that, 60% of the time, they have no headaches with their period," said Dr. Silberstein.

The doctor said those women who still had "break-through" migraines found them far less painful, and less likely to hinder day-to-day life.

"This is a new concept short-term prevention."

The company that makes Frova hopes to eventually package it in a "menstrual migraine" attack pack, which will be easier for doctors and patients to use and more likely to be covered by insurance.

Dr. Silberstein said, in his studies, Frova caused no side effects that were any different from a sugar pill, and he estimates five to ten million American women could benefit from taking the drug this way.

Jennine, a full-time working mother of 2 said she'll count on it to make her monthly cycles something she no longer has to dread. "Having a migraine doesn't fit into my life at all. No way!"

Frova is made by a British company, and marketed here in the U.S. by Endo Pharmacuticals of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. It is in a class of drugs called 'triptans', and it's actually been available in this country for six years as a migraine treatment.

What would be new is using it like this: short-term, at the same time each month. And the company expects an FDA decision on that as early as Friday.

Headache Information:
Jefferson Headache Center
American Headache Society
American Headache Society Committee for Headache Education, ACHE