The FDA has approved Botox for the preventive treatment of chronic migraine headaches in adults. Migraines—which are three times more common in women than men—are characterized by intense pulsing or throbbing pain.
Patients with chronic migraine experience a headache more than 14 days of the month. To treat these patients, Botox is given about every 12 weeks as multiple injections around the head and neck to try to dull future headache symptoms. Researchers are still exploring how Botox works on migraines, but one theory is that it blocks pain signals from reaching nerve endings.
Botox worldwide sales are divided equally between medical and cosmetic uses, according to the New York Times. Allergan, the maker of Botox, believes its sales as a medical treatment may soon eclipse its sales as a cosmetic wrinkle treatment. The injectable is also approved to treat uncontrolled blinking; crossed eyes; certain neck muscle spasms; underarm sweating; and muscle spasticity in the hands and elbows.
In other Botox news, it’s been reported that British scientists have developed a way to refine Botox to improve its use for treating Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy, and chronic migraine. The researcher’s method produced a refined Botox-like molecule, they said, which would be practical for clinical use but would not have unwanted toxic effects.
“It will now be possible to produce Botox-based medicines in a safer and more economical way,” said Bazbek Davletov, who led the study at Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology.
Davletov said the new refining technique could allow scientists to produce new forms of Botox with wider practical medicinal uses, for example as a long-term painkiller.
Both the FDA press release on its approval of Botox to treat chronic migraine and the article on refining Botox, “Scientists Find Way to Refine Botox for New Uses,” are available online.
