Help For Women With Migraines?
Women get more migraines than men do (click here for further details). This is thought that women have “a more excitable brain” than men do, according to studies done at UCLA. Now, doctors at UCLA thinks they have found an Alzheimer’s medicine has a side effect — it seems to lessen the frequency of migraine attacks in women.
What Drugs?
The drug are called Namenda, made by Forest Pharmaceuticals, which has an active ingredient called memantine. The theory is that they work in suppressing or blocking CSD waves in the brain, which women make more than men. CSD stands for “cortisol spreading depression”.
The UCLA study gave 20 mgs Namenda to 60 middle-aged women with chronic migraines (having some kind of headache at least 15 days per month). 60% claimed they had less migraines after taking the medicine.
The drug is not approved by the FDA for migraines — that route will take years yet, and at least three more clinical studies. This is a promising first look, although 60 women is not a huge chunk of the human population.
Haven’t We Heard This Before?
Doctors do take note of the side effects medications have and often perscribe them just for the side effects. This has lead to some problems in the past, most notably with the “Fen-phen” fiasco, which lead to many deaths and years worth of lawsuits. So don’t jump up and down at your doctor’s office demanding Namenda just yet.
So, why do these little preliminary studies get so much press if it’s going to take years before the drug can safley get on the market? Well, the makers of drugs hold the patent, which expires after a certain number of years. However, if they can find that the drug works for yet another medical problem than the one detailed in the original patent, then they can file for ANOTHER patent and get exclusive rights to the medication for another several years.
Only time will tell if Nemenda turns out to be a medicine women with migraines can swear by or swear at.
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:53 pm
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