HeadaTerm’s TENS therapy provides treatment for acute migraines

WAT Medical has announced that the HeadaTerm TENS device in a clinical study reduced acute migraine pain 11.8% more than any other migraine medications.

HeadaTerm, which provides drug-free treatment without side effects, can be worn on the user’s forehead, using non-invasive neuronal electrical stimulation technology to prevent and treat primary headache, including migraine.

Comprising a blind, randomised controlled trial, the study was conducted by Dr Nihat M Hokenek and his team at the Emergency Department of Kartal Dr Lütfi Kirdar Training and Research Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey.

The study divided patients into a control group and a verum group, which included patients using the device for the first time, with identical devices allocated to both the groups, each undergoing 20 minutes of therapy.

After therapy initiation, patients’ perceived changes in the pain intensity were recorded at the 20 and 120-minute marks, using Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), with the individual need for the additional treatments evaluated for patients after 120 minutes.

While the VAS change for the verum group from 0 to 120 minutes recorded -65.46 ± 25.11, it was -9.46 ± 2.61 (p <0.001) for the control group.

Verbal scores in the 120-minute mark were 1.2 for the control group and 4.5 for the verum group.

Furthermore, more analgesic requirement for 30 patients (76.92%) in the control group was required, as well as 1 (2%) in the verum group, after 120 minutes.

The study found that TENS therapy is a fast-acting treatment for acute migraine.