OSU Develops New Treatment For Migraine Sufferers

Friday June 27, 2008 3:39 AM
UPDATED: Wednesday July 2, 2008 10:26 AM
Dr. Yousef Mohammad
Researchers at the Ohio State University Medical Center have developed a new, non-drug treatment for preventing migraine headaches.

The treatment involves use of a magnetic device placed on the back of patients' heads when they sense a migraine coming on, 10TV's Andrea Cambern reported.

Doctors at the American Headache Society learned about the new treatment on Thursday at the society's annual scientific meeting in Boston.

Dr. Yousef Mohammad has spent five years working on the device at Ohio State. He said that medications help only half of all migraine sufferers, and his treatment demonstrates that migraines are primarily due to problems with the brain's electrical activity rather than its chemical activity.

"We're treating electricity with electricity now, rather than treating electricity with chemicals," Mohammad told 10TV News.

Mohammad said his treatment short-circuits the onset of a migraine, preventing harmful electrical activity from spreading inside the brain.

"If a fire starts in a forest, then the fire will spread from one tree to another tree, until it reaches the house and burns the house," Mohammad said. "But if you cut a few trees in the middle, then the fire will not spread."

Mohammad expects FDA approval for his treatment within the next six months.

Stay with 10TV News and refresh 10TV.com for additional information.

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