New Medications Available to Treat Migraines

A new medication is intended to focus on treating migraine headaches.

According to Howie Zheng, M.D., a board certified general neurologist with The Neurology Center at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, for every three or four female patients, he maybe sees one male patient suffering from a migraine.

In the last few years, there has been a new class of drugs targeting migraines called Calcitonin Gene-related Peptide (CGRP) antagonist drugs.

"It's a natural protein or substance in the body that is utilized in a lot of pathways for inflammation and pain generation, and the reason these drugs have come out is there's been a lot of research about blocking them, as they are usually produced in high amounts during migraine attacks," Dr. Zheng said.

Qulipta, Nurtec and Ubrelvy are examples of the CGRP drugs. Dr. Zheng noted that some of these drugs have shown they can prevent a migraine.

Some common triggers of migraines are stress, lack of sleep, dehydration, hormones and even not eating.

View Mercy neurologist Dr. Howie Zheng's interview regarding migraines and their treatment.