Remote electrical neuromodulation effective in relieving chronic migraine pain

A study presented at this year’s virtual PAINWeek meeting further demonstrated the safety and efficacy of remote electrical neuromodulation in reliving chronic migraine pain.

“The objective of this investigation was to assess the safety and efficacy of remote electrical neuromodulation in people with chronic migraine,” Tamar Lin, PhD, chief scientist of Theranica Bio-Electronics, Netanya, Israel, said during the presentation.

Lin noted that the device used in the study, Nerivio, is already approved by the FDA for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults without chronic migraine.

The device is self-administered and is applied to the arm at time of migraine onset. Patients can adjust the intensity of stimulation using a smartphone app.

Researchers conducted a pooled analysis of two studies on remote electrical neuromodulation in patients with chronic migraine to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Nerivio in these patients.

The two trials were open-label, single-arm studies of adults aged 18 to 75 years with chronic migraine. Included was a 4-week treatment phase in which participants were asked to treat their headaches with the Nerivio device. Participants noted their pain severity, symptoms and functional disability at the start of treatment and again at 2 hours and 24 hours after treatment.

There were 168 participants enrolled in both trials, according to researchers, 129 of whom were included in the final analyses.

Lin and colleagues determined that at 2 hours, 56.6% of participants achieved pain relief and 22.5% achieved pain freedom. They also found that 75.4% of participants experienced sustained pain relief at 24 hours.

At 2 hours following treatment initiation, nausea resolved in 57.1% of participants, photophobia in 39.8%, and phonophobia in 45.7% of participants.

In addition, Lin and colleagues found that 62.1% of participants experienced pain relief at 2 hours during at least half of their migraines with remote electrical neuromodulation.

“Nerivio may provide an alternative acute therapy in patients with chronic migraine, holding the potential to reduce medication use in the population with increased risk of developing medication overuse headache,” Lin said during the presentation.