UF Health scientists have discovered that the source of throbbing pain in migraines comes from alpha brain waves, not the heartbeat. These new findings could result in changes in how people receive therapy.
Neurologist Andrew Ahn and his colleagues have been working on the project for more than 10 years and used techniques involving pulsation to find the true source of the pain.
“The more that I got into the basic signs underlying the migraine process, the more skeptical I got (about the source of pain),” Ahn said.
Ahn and his team used dozens of patients over the past year to test the relation between the pulsation patients felt in their heads and their actual heartbeat. Ahn found the two were drastically different.
The difference in the two rates led him to believe the throbbing pain had nothing to do with the heart but was actually fully in the brain.
The discovery could impact changes in therapy.
Most of the treatment given to patients does not cure the source of the pain but simply reduces the amount of pain the patient feels, Ahn said.
“People view opioids as being the final stand,” Ahn said. “The truth is that opioids really aren’t that effective, and for most people, there are really unpleasant side effects … it just doesn’t work. It doesn’t get people back to work.”
With different types of therapy, doctors can allocate resources in different areas instead of continually using money to pay for treatments that are ineffective, Ahn said.
“We are taught to guide our treatments by the body systems affected,” said Sean Connolly, 23, a second-year UF medical student.
In many cases, drugs feed the pain addiction instead of the cause of the pain being addressed, Ahn said.
“The war on drugs is no longer about illegal drugs,” Ahn said. “It’s about prescription drugs. That’s where people are getting their opioids now. It’s not from across the border.”
Ahn said changes could potentially take up to 10 years before they are seen in the medical world.
A version of this story ran on page 5 on 9/12/2013 under the headline "Migraine research might mean less of a headache for patients"
