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Botulinum Toxin Type A (Botox) Injections Might Alleviate Chronic Headaches and Migraines: Presented at AAPM

By Jerry Ingram

NEW ORLEANS, LA -- February 12, 2007 -- For chronic headache or chronic migraine sufferers who have not found relief in standard treatment options, botulinum toxin type A (Botox) injections might provide pain relief, according to research presented here at the American Academy of Pain Medicine 23^rd Annual Meeting (AAPM).

"Botox is a relatively new therapy that we've been using to treat headaches. We in particular [in our study] looked at people who have daily, chronic headaches more than 15 days a month," explained lead investigator Andrew J. Linn, MD, resident, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts.

For this study, Dr. Linn and his colleagues examined the charts of 105 patients who received Botox injections once every 3 months for chronic headache or migraine between 1999 and 2005 at the Arnold Pain Management Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

The team defined a positive response as a 30% reduction in the number of headaches per week and/or a reduction of 30% of headache hours per episode 4 to 6 weeks after treatment.

Results show that 36 patients (34%) experienced a decrease in the number of headaches per week of 30% or more, and 14 patients (13%) showed a decrease in the number of headache hours per week of 30% or more.

Additionally, 9 patients (8.6%) had a decrease in both headaches per week and headache hours per week.

"These patients had tried all of the other options available without success," concluded Dr. Linn.

"The take-home message is that Botox works for many of these patients who have tried everything else," he added.


[Presentation title: Botox Injections for Refractory Headache Syndromes. Abstract 127]

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