Current pain and headache reports
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Despite the unmet therapeutic needs of patients with chronic migraine (CM) and/or medication overuse, available treatment options are limited. Recently, four calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonists, known as gepants, have been approved for the treatment of migraine. This review focuses on the preventive treatment of CM with gepants and highlights recent findings. ⋯ Two randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have shown promising results for rimegepant and atogepant as preventive treatments for CM. In an RCT targeting patients with CM, atogepant demonstrated a significant reduction in the mean monthly migraine days, irrespective of acute medication overuse. Moreover, the patients reported no significant safety concerns and exhibited good tolerance to treatment. These findings highlight the potential of gepants as a new and effective therapeutic option for patients with CM and/or medication overuse. Gepant use will help improve the management and quality of life of individuals with this debilitating condition.
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Curr Pain Headache Rep · Mar 2024
ReviewTelehealth and Virtual Reality Technologies in Chronic Pain Management: A Narrative Review.
This review provides medical practitioners with an overview of the present and emergent roles of telehealth and associated virtual reality (VR) applications in chronic pain (CP) management, particularly in the post-COVID-19 healthcare landscape. ⋯ Accumulated evidence points to the efficacy of now well-established telehealth modalities, such as videoconferencing, short messaging service (SMS), and mobile health (mHealth) applications in complementing remote CP care. More recently, and although still in early phases of clinical implementation, a wide range of VR-based interventions have demonstrated potential for improving the asynchronous remote management of CP. Additionally, VR-associated technologies at the leading edge of science and engineering, such as VR-assisted biofeedback, haptic technology, high-definition three-dimensional (HD3D) conferencing, VR-enabled interactions in a Metaverse, and the use of wearable monitoring devices, herald a new era for remote, synchronous patient-physician interactions. These advancements hold the potential to facilitate remote physical examinations, personalized remote care, and innovative interventions such as ultra-realistic biofeedback. Despite the promise of VR-associated technologies, several limitations remain, including the paucity of robust long-term effectiveness data, heterogeneity of reported pain-related outcomes, challenges with scalability and insurance coverage, and demographic-specific barriers to patient acceptability. Future research efforts should be directed toward mitigating these limitations to facilitate the integration of telehealth-associated VR into the conventional management of CP. Despite ongoing barriers to widespread adoption, recent evidence suggests that VR-based interventions hold an increasing potential to complement and enhance the remote delivery of CP care.
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Curr Pain Headache Rep · Nov 2023
ReviewNeurovascular Compression-Induced Intracranial Allodynia May Be the True Nature of Migraine Headache: an Interpretative Review.
Surgical deactivation of migraine trigger sites by extracranial neurovascular decompression has produced encouraging results and challenged previous understanding of primary headaches. However, there is a lack of in-depth discussions on the pathophysiological basis of migraine surgery. This narrative review provides interpretation of relevant literature from the perspective of compressive neuropathic etiology, pathogenesis, and pathophysiology of migraine. ⋯ Vasodilation, which can be asymptomatic in healthy subjects, may produce compression of cranial nerves in migraineurs at both extracranial and intracranial entrapment-prone sites. This may be predetermined by inherited and acquired anatomical factors and may include double crush-type lesions. Neurovascular compression can lead to sensitization of the trigeminal pathways and resultant cephalic hypersensitivity. While descending (central) trigeminal activation is possible, symptomatic intracranial sensitization can probably only occur in subjects who develop neurovascular entrapment of cranial nerves, which can explain why migraine does not invariably afflict everyone. Nerve compression-induced focal neuroinflammation and sensitization of any cranial nerve may neurogenically spread to other cranial nerves, which can explain the clinical complexity of migraine. Trigger dose-dependent alternating intensity of sensitization and its synchrony with cyclic central neural activities, including asymmetric nasal vasomotor oscillations, may explain the laterality and phasic nature of migraine pain. Intracranial allodynia, i.e., pain sensation upon non-painful stimulation, may better explain migraine pain than merely nociceptive mechanisms, because migraine cannot be associated with considerable intracranial structural changes and consequent painful stimuli. Understanding migraine as an intracranial allodynia could stimulate research aimed at elucidating the possible neuropathic compressive etiology of migraine and other primary headaches.
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Chronic migraine (CM) is a chronic form of migraine that differs from episodic migraine (EM) in terms of prevalence, comorbidities, response to treatment, and biomarkers. The aim of this review was to summarize the recent findings on serological biomarkers of CM. ⋯ Neuronal, inflammatory, and vascular markers have been investigated to assess their diagnostic and prognostic ability and treatment effectiveness. Several markers showed significant alterations according to disease status and treatment response in CM. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), glutamate, and adiponectin appear to be the most promising blood biomarkers for CM. Most studies have shown altered ictal and interictal levels of these markers in CM compared with those in EM and controls. Additionally, they showed a significant association with treatment outcomes. Total adiponectin and high-molecular-weight adiponectin levels were less studied as biomarkers of CM than CGRP and glutamate levels but showed promising results. The development of suitable biomarkers could revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of CM and ultimately decrease the disability and societal costs of the disease.
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Curr Pain Headache Rep · Mar 2024
ReviewCategorizing Sports-Related Concussion Disparities by Key Domains of Social Determinants of Health.
To explore recently published data on disparities in concussion and best categorize these data into domains of social determinants of health (SDOH). ⋯ Disparities in concussion cover a range of SDOH domains. Questions on disparities in concussion remain. Interventions to reduce these disparities and inequities are needed. Social determinants of health may play a significant role in disparities and inequities in sports related concussion. There is interplay and overlap in SDOH domains that affect concussion outcomes. It is possible that an increase in SDOH may affect concussion disparities by moderated mediation; however, further data is needed to validate this potential effect. Moreover, attention to SDOH domains in sports related concussion may provide insight on intervention targets to ameliorate disparities in sports related concussion.