Interesting news in the oh-so-frustrating world of migraine headaches: Two studies being presented next week at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in Philadelphia show promising migraine-preventing effects for two new drugs. If they'll make our pounding heads go away, we're all ears!

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, what makes these drugs unique? Unlike most migraine treatments, they're focused on prevention. Migraine sufferers typically only have a few options in dealing with their headaches: trying to suss out what causes them (lack of sleep, caffeine, certain foods) and avoiding it; taking OTC meds like Advil that may not always work; downing intense migraine medications to treat them that may cause nasty side effects; trying drugs like antidepressants or blood pressure meds to prevent them; for sufferers of serious, chronic migraine, getting Botox to try to prevent them (seriously!).

So, these two drugs focus on preventing migraines by blocking a peptide called CGRP that brings inflammation to nerves and dilation to blood vessels when certain migraine-causing stimuli (like the aforementioned lack of sleep, foods, etc.) cause it to be released. In other words, rather than trying to avoid the myriad of things that can cause migraines, you could potentially just take a drug that would sort of "disarm" those triggers before they could ever give you a headache.

Larger studies are needed to confirm the results before you can expect to see these drugs available to the public, but you know we'll be keeping an eye on it all!


Image Credit: Chris Craymer