Botox injection for migraine treatment - Dr. Hamidreza Torabi Neurologist
Botox injection for migraine treatment
Botox injection for migraine treatment
masoud7777 1-19-1401 03:10:53 +00:00Do you also suffer from headaches?
Botox Injections for Migraine Treatment - If you have been diagnosed with migraine headaches and have them often, you are probably always wondering if there is anything you can do to prevent them.
Botulinum toxin or Botox was approved in 2010 to treat adults with chronic migraines. It means that you have both of the following items:
- History of migraine headaches
- Experiencing headaches (including tension headaches) on most days of the month (15 days or more) that last at least 4 hours a day.
Of course, this is not an approved treatment if:
- You get headaches for 14 days or less during the month.
- And if your headaches are of a different type, like a cluster.
What is Botox?
Botox is a neurotoxin, a toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. If you eat it in rotten food, it can cause a fatal reaction called botulism because it blocks your nerve signals and paralyzes your muscles.
But Botox injections are safe to treat headaches because the toxin is not digested in your stomach and the dose is much lower than what you get in rotten food.
- Doctors have found that Botox injections can help smooth wrinkles because it relaxes facial muscles. It also helps people who have tics and spasms due to neurological diseases such as cerebral palsy.
- When people with migraine headaches used Botox to treat their wrinkles, they told their doctors that their headaches got better. So doctors began to study it as a treatment for migraine pains.
Is botox effective for migraine headaches?
- In a study of adults with chronic migraine headaches, Botox injections reduced the number of days they had these headaches or even other types of headaches. They also had more pain-free days per month and reported fewer days off work.
- In another study, nearly half of the people who received two Botox injections reported that the number of headache days per month was cut in half. After five rounds of treatment, this amount increased to about 70% of people.
- Doctors think Botox works for migraine headaches because it blocks the pathways of chemicals called neurotransmitters that transmit pain signals from the brain. Botox acts like a roadblock in this path and stops their movement before reaching the nerve endings around the head and neck.
Botox treatment
For treatment, once every 12 weeks, you get a few injections of Botox around your head and neck to relieve or prevent your migraine headaches.
You may need a total of 30 to 40 injection shots, and an equal number will be injected on each side of the head. If you have migraine pain at a certain point, you may need more injections. You can see the results 2 to 3 weeks after your first treatment session.
You should only get this type of Botox treatment from a doctor who has the training and expertise to administer this injection for chronic migraine headaches, not for wrinkle removal or other cosmetic applications.
Side effects
- Neck pain and headache are the most common side effects for people who have chronic migraine headaches and use Botox.
- You may have an allergic reaction to Botox, which is very rare. Symptoms of this can be hives, shortness of breath, or swelling in the leg.
- Although there are no confirmed cases of Botox spreading to other parts of the body, it can be fatal. The drug label contains this warning.