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Ozempic-like medication used to deal with kind 2 diabetes and weight problems might also deal with migraine, even when the drugs do not set off weight reduction, early analysis suggests.
A preliminary report, printed within the journal Headache and offered June 21 on the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) convention, means that liraglutide — a drug used to deal with weight problems and diabetes — slashed the variety of days sufferers skilled extreme migraines by nearly half. Liraglutide belongs to a category of medication known as GLP-1 agonists, which additionally contains semaglutide, the energetic ingredient within the diabetes drug Ozempic and weight-loss drug Wegovy.
However whereas the thought of treating migraines with these medication is “extraordinarily progressive and forward-thinking,” the brand new outcomes needs to be taken with warning. That is as a result of the trial was small and did not embrace a comparability group that did not use the remedy, Dr. Alex Sinclair, a neurologist on the College of Birmingham within the U.Okay. who wasn’t concerned within the research, informed Stay Science.
“That is a completely tantalizing analysis research as a result of it offers us a extremely fascinating concept of a brand new mechanism of delivering medication for migraine,” Sinclair informed Stay Science. “However it is extremely preliminary.”
This “crucial and thrilling discovering” may probably present “one other therapy possibility for sufferers with continual migraine, particularly for many who didn’t beforehand reply to different present accessible therapies,” stated Dr. Chia-Chun Chiang, an affiliate professor of neurology on the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota who wasn’t concerned within the research.
Migraine days minimize in half
To evaluate the impact of liraglutide on migraine, Dr. Simone Braca, a neurologist on the College of Naples Federico II in Italy, and colleagues gave 31 sufferers with weight problems and high-frequency or continual migraine 0.6 milligrams of liraglutide every day for one week, adopted by 1.2 mg every day for the subsequent 11 weeks.
After 12 weeks, practically half of the sufferers reported that their variety of headache days monthly had dropped, from a median of 20 to 9. This was a “big” impact, Braca informed Stay Science.
Seven individuals noticed their headache days drop by 75%, and one affected person’s migraines disappeared utterly. General, the sufferers additionally reported a big drop in how a lot migraine impeded their every day lives. Importantly, the contributors didn’t shed weight throughout the research. This means the advance in migraine wasn’t linked to weight reduction, a noteworthy remark since weight problems is understood to improve the chance of extreme complications.
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Braca highlighted that these sufferers had been chosen as a result of they’d not responded to different migraine medication, similar to antibodies that concentrate on calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), a molecule launched within the mind throughout a migraine.
The research authors have some theories about what is perhaps occurring, however they did not accumulate measurements that might show a mechanism of motion. GLP-1 medication could scale back strain contained in the cranium by reducing the manufacturing of cerebrospinal fluid, which bathes the mind and spinal wire, the researchers steered. This, in flip, may scale back the discharge of CGRP, which many scientists assume fuels migraine ache.
In assist of that speculation, Braca’s group pointed to a earlier research led by Sinclair and printed within the journal Mind in 2023. It steered that exenatide, one other GLP-1 drug, lowers mind strain. Of observe the drug appeared to cut back migraine days among the many research contributors, though it was unable to point out a powerful statistical distinction.
Different attainable mechanisms underpinning the impact within the new research outcomes might be that liraglutide instantly decreased the discharge of CGRP or that the drug regulated glucose metabolism, Chiang stated. Earlier analysis has steered that migraine might be linked to points in glucose metabolism.
The brand new research has necessary limitations, although, Sinclair stated. First, the research was very small, with solely 31 contributors, and it lasted solely 12 weeks. One other important limitation is that the trial didn’t embrace a placebo group. The placebo impact, by which individuals’s signs enhance even with a sham therapy, is especially sturdy in terms of self-reported ache.
“We now have an enormous placebo response in headache analysis,” Sinclair informed Stay Science.
Braca agreed that the trial had limitations. Nonetheless, “each the historical past of a number of earlier therapy failures and the magnitude of the noticed response scale back the chance of a big placebo impact,” Braca stated.
The outcomes now should be confirmed in bigger, placebo-controlled medical trials earlier than they might information therapy for sufferers with migraine. If confirmed, nonetheless, the findings may open up a brand new line of inquiry for migraine therapy, Braca stated.
This text is for informational functions solely and isn’t meant to supply medical recommendation.
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