<story><title>Pioneering work that has changed our understanding of migraines</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/oct/09/can-migraines-be-untangled-by-new-medical-thinking</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hdjjhhvvhga</author><text>What you are looking for is here:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Calcitonin_gene-related_peptide#Medicines&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Calcitonin_gene-related_peptid...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;So what&amp;#x27;s the catch?&lt;p&gt;1. These drugs are relatively recent (approved within the last 3 years).&lt;p&gt;2. It&amp;#x27;s not a pill but injection (although you can be trained to give it to yourself), once a month on average.&lt;p&gt;3. The medicine is relatively expensive (€500 per injection). So unless your country subsidizes one of these or you can afford such amount once a month, you will probably look for alternative treatments for now.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>GordonS</author><text>I suffer from chronic headaches and debilitating migraines. I was having several migraines a week - I was able to mostly stop those that started during the day using sumatriptan, but I frequently had migraines start during the night whole sleeping too, which mean that as soon as I woke up, I&amp;#x27;d end up lying in the dark, unable to move and wishing I was dead. The pain really is that bad.&lt;p&gt;I started erenumab (a CGRP antagonist, brand name Aimovig) around 8 months ago, and it&amp;#x27;s been &lt;i&gt;absolutely amazing&lt;/i&gt;! I&amp;#x27;ve went from having several migraines a week to almost none, and never while sleeping.&lt;p&gt;It really is expensive though - here in the UK it costs the NHS £386 per injection pen! As a result, I had to fight with my neurologist for over a year to let me have it.&lt;p&gt;Doing subq injections yourself sounds daunting, but it&amp;#x27;s not so bad once you&amp;#x27;ve done it a couple of times. Apart from...&lt;p&gt;...as an aside, the Aimovig branded injector pen is &lt;i&gt;shit&lt;/i&gt; - it hurts like absolute hell, and somehow always seems to cut me, like it &amp;quot;slides&amp;quot; before the needle goes in. I&amp;#x27;ve done subq injections with a regular needle before, as well as using another kind of pre-filled injector pen for a different medication, and they were so much better!</text></comment>
<story><title>Pioneering work that has changed our understanding of migraines</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/oct/09/can-migraines-be-untangled-by-new-medical-thinking</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hdjjhhvvhga</author><text>What you are looking for is here:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Calcitonin_gene-related_peptide#Medicines&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Calcitonin_gene-related_peptid...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;So what&amp;#x27;s the catch?&lt;p&gt;1. These drugs are relatively recent (approved within the last 3 years).&lt;p&gt;2. It&amp;#x27;s not a pill but injection (although you can be trained to give it to yourself), once a month on average.&lt;p&gt;3. The medicine is relatively expensive (€500 per injection). So unless your country subsidizes one of these or you can afford such amount once a month, you will probably look for alternative treatments for now.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mhd</author><text>Either one of the existing ones or the new IV version can also be taken as a &amp;quot;combined package&amp;quot; for a few months. But honestly, the injection is the least of the worries. You don&amp;#x27;t have to pull something up in a syringe, you get a complete injector from the pharmacy. Aim it at your thigh, push the button, no big chances of doing it wrong. Hurts like hell, I&amp;#x27;m told.&lt;p&gt;But those monoclonal antibodies aren&amp;#x27;t really wonder drugs. Sure, they help a lot of people, but for others they don&amp;#x27;t or at least they don&amp;#x27;t do it for a long time. 
It&amp;#x27;s a better, dedicated medication than just using pain medication or anti-depressants off-label, but we&amp;#x27;re far from every migraine sufferer finally getting a totally reliable off-switch.</text></comment>