Until recently, the condition was rare. But as obesity has become more common, the number of cases has skyrocketed: a 350 percent increase in the past 10 years.
However, treatment options are limited.
A team of British researchers now hopes to change that.
In their research, which appeared in the journal Brainthey present promising results for future treatment of the disease.
They tested a drug with the active ingredient exenatide, which is commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes.
In the study, seven people with IIH were treated with this drug for 12 weeks. Eight other patients received a placebo during the same period.
Positive effect lasts
The drug was injected twice a day, and 2.5 hours after the injection, the researchers could already see that the cerebrospinal fluid decreased the pressure in the brain. And the positive effect persisted: when measured after the 12 weeks that the experiment lasted, the pressure was still lower.
At the same time, the patients reported a marked decrease in the number of migraine attacks during the 12 weeks of the experiment.
On average, they had 7.7 fewer headache days per month than before the study. The placebo group experienced a decrease of 1.5 days over the same period.
Alex Sinclair, a professor of neurology at the University of Birmingham and lead author of the study, called the results “important.”
At the same time, he emphasizes that more research is needed to support these results before treatment can be started.