NORTH AMERICAN NEUROMODULATION SOCIETY
4700 W. Lake Avenue
Glenview, IL 60025
www.neuromodulation.org

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROMISING RESULTS FROM TREATMENT FOR CHRONIC HEADACHES
Over $55 Billion A Year Spent on Headache Expenses and Sick Days

NEW YORK – February 8, 2011 – Headaches cost over $55 billion dollars a year in medical expenses and sick days, according to the Louis Harris & Associates survey, and about 1 in 6 (or over 45 million) Americans suffer chronic headaches each year. About 10% percent of these headache sufferers do not respond to over-the-counter medications and conventional treatments. Over the past six years, a promising treatment called Occipital Nerve Stimulation, a type of neuromodulation treatment, has helped some severe headache patients get control of this life-impacting pain.
     Dr. Joel Saper, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.A.A.N. is founder and director of the Michigan Headache & Neurological Institute and an international authority and author on headache and pain. He stated, “Many patients have received neuromodulation treatments for their headaches, and some who have had very little relief before have substantially benefited from this treatment.”
    With occipital nerve stimulation, a device similar in function and appearance to cardiac pacemakers uses electrical signals applied directly to peripheral nerves to block pain.
    The pain of headache arises in the brain and can occur as a result of physiological changes within the brain itself or from signals sent to the brain from throughout the body. The brain of a headache patient is generally considered more sensitive to both emotional and physiological stimuli. When activated, a cascade of physiological events occurs, leading to inflammation in areas of the brain as well as in blood vessels and meningeal tissue (the membranous coverings of the brain and spinal cord).
    With chronic migraine, the form of headache tested in the stimulator trial, the changes in the brain appear persistent, thereby producing persistent pain, which has a major impact on life activities, from work to school to social and general functioning. Debilitation may occur for days or even months at a time. People with this condition are also prone to other physiological and psychological ailments that occur as a consequence.
    Dr. Ashwini Sharan, MD, of Thomas Jefferson University, in Philadelphia, has performed this treatment on many patients. As an example, he relates one story of a 28 year-old female patient who had suffered from a combination of migraine and cluster headaches for a decade. She had received very little pain relief from intravenous infusions, an assortment of medications, treatments and injections. She and Dr. Sharan felt that occipital nerve stimulation (ONS) “was her best option, it was reversible and had low risks,” explained Dr. Sharan. ONS involves delivering a small electrical signal to the occipital nerve which prevents the patient from sensing the migraines/ headache.
    The patient, Carrie Preston of Pennsylvania, is a nurse at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. In 2009, she underwent a two hour procedure to implant removable, leads (wires) and a half dollar sized device into her right side. She was home the same day and was back to work in six weeks. The device had excellent results reducing the number of cluster headaches from 2-5 attacks per day to an average of 0-2 attacks per day. Her chronic migraine pain baseline dropped as well. Her device only requires her to recharge it approximately once a month at home. In two years, Carrie has drastically reduced her use of medicines and has had a great reduction of pain and headache frequency.
    She said, “Before this treatment, there were times I had been unable to fully function because of the pain. Though not a cure-all, the ONS device has allowed me to move on in my life being less encumbered by the pain. I am enrolled in two masters' degree programs, one in the Pediatric Acute/Chronic Care Nurse Practitioner program and one in the Master of Bioethics program at the University of Pennsylvania and am getting married this year. I hope to work with children who suffer from headaches and chronic pain.”

    Dr. Sharan explained, “Not all headache sufferers are candidates for this device but more people need to learn that this option is available.”
To learn more about neuromodulation please visit www.neuromodulation.org. All pain evaluations should be undertaken by a board certified physician or neurosurgeon who specializes in this area.
    Dr. Saper emphasizes that while promising, the anecdotes and studies that have been recorded thus far are but preliminary, and much more research must be undertaken to determine to whom this therapy is best directed, what are its limits, and what better technological and electronic advances would be helpful to improve the outcome from this treatment.

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