“Headache for 7 million Italians, help from gepants and monoclonals”

2023-05-30 16:38:52

“Between 6 and 7 million Italians suffer from headache. The prevalence is 25% in the young-adult age and in the female sex”, this means that “in women between 30 and 45 years almost one in 4 suffers of migraine which is the most common form of headache. There is no definitive cure for this pathology, but gepant drugs and monoclonal antibodies can reduce the severity of attacks and the frequency with which they occur”. Thus Simona Sacco, professor of Neurology at the University of L’Aquila, of the Italian Society of Neurology (Sin), in the ninth episode of the monthly column ‘Protect your brain, entrust yourself to the neurologist’, dedicated to neurological diseases no longer the prerogative of Western countries. The project, born from the collaboration between Sin and time.news, aims to increase knowledge on neurological pathologies and on the figure of the neurologist, but also and above all to sensitize the population to rely on the care of this specialist when they appear the first symptoms.

“Headache and migraine are not the same thing – clarifies Sacco, who is also UOC director of Neurology and Stroke Unit Avezzano Sulmona – Headache is in fact a generic term that means headache, while migraine”, from which 12 % of the population, “represents a specific type of headache. There are many forms of headache, of which migraine is one of the most common”. The main symptoms of migraine are “the headache, therefore a very strong pain in the head which can be moderate to strong, a pain that is generally unilateral, in some cases even bilateral – underlines the expert – and generally the pain is associated with discomfort for light, for noises, nausea, episodes of profuse vomiting and during headache attacks there is also an intolerance to physical effort”.

The headache, in addition to being a very widespread disease, in some cases can also cause disabling consequences, for this reason it becomes difficult for those who suffer from it to carry out the simplest activities at home, in the family or at work. “If you suffer from headache – highlights Sacco – the first point of reference is the general practitioner who is able to diagnose migraine and manage the less complex forms of the pathology. When, on the other hand, the pathology becomes more complex to manage, therefore disabling, it is advisable to contact specialists in the sector who are generally found in a hospital structure where there are headache centers”.

Thanks to the drugs available, “such as monoclonal antibodies and gepant”, a group of drugs for the treatment and prophylaxis of migraine that have appeared relatively recently, “we are able to reduce the frequency with which attacks occur and also reduce the severity of the attacks”, remarked Sacco.

Not only that: “Then there is the expansion of the use of monoclonal antibodies at the age of development, under 18 years, for young children who suffer from the disease and who could benefit greatly from these treatments”, concludes the neurologist.