Headaches are almost ubiquitous. You talk to your neighbors or family members and, more than likely, almost one quarter of them will have migraine headaches. These severe headaches are bad enough, but some people even have chronic migraines, which are defined by the International Headache Society as fifteen or more headache days per month. Any less than that and you have episodic migraines. Potentially even worse are refractory chronic migraines, where traditional treatments do not seem to help. Many people have migraines or know someone who does and the impact can be significant.
There are a lot of options for treatment that are available through your doctor and elsewhere, including medications such as topiramate or propranolol, botox injections, meditation, exercise, sleep hygiene, diet control, etc. However, the available treatments are at times not enough, unfortunately. This is where more research is needed. There has been a resurgence of academic interest in ketamine infusions for pain, and migraines specifically.
A study published in the journal Headache in 2017, titled Ketamine Infusions for Treatment Refractory Headache, looked into ketamine infusions for treatment of refractory headaches. They evaluated 77 patients with chronic migraines or new daily persistent headaches who had failed previous aggressive treatments. They used a pain scale of 0 to 10 with 10 being most severe. On admission, the trial participants averaged 7.1. On discharge from the hospital, they averaged 3.8. Over 71% of patients were acute responders where they showed at least a 2 point improvement on the 0 to 10 scale. Over 27% of these acute responders maintained this benefit at their subsequent outpatient office visit. The average length of hospital stay was just under 5 days and most patients tolerated the ketamine infusions well. They concluded that subanesthetic ketamine intravenous infusions may help patients with chronic migraines or new daily persistent headaches who have failed other treatments.
A different study published in BMJ in 2018, titled Ketamine for Refractory Headache: A Retrospective Analysis, further researched ketamine intravenous therapy for refractory headaches. Over three years, they looked at 61 patients admitted for five days of continuous ketamine intravenous therapy. Approximately 77% of the 61 patients were immediate responders, defined as an improvement in the 0 to 10 pain rating scale of two points or more while in the hospital. The ultimate improvement was seen at a mean of 4.56 days while admitted. Approximately 44% of those responders had a sustained response after a mean of 38.1 days, and about 39% of those responders had a sustained response even after a mean of 101.3 days. A sustained response was met when the patients maintained that two point improvement at the follow up visits. The maximum ketamine rate during this study was 0.76 mg per kg per hour. They concluded that ketamine intravenous infusions were associated with short-term improvement in many refractory headache patients with mild side effects.
A third study is currently enrolling. It is called Ketamine for Refractory Chronic Migraine: a Pilot Study, and is sponsored by Thomas Jefferson University. In this study, patients with refractory chronic migraine who fail treatment at a different hospital will be admitted for five days to their neurology team, and their acute pain anesthesia service will manage the ketamine intravenous infusions. Exclusion criteria are consistent with the 2018 Consensus Guidelines for Ketamine, including schizophrenia, active psychosis, pregnancy, poorly controlled cardiovascular disease, cirrhosis, and previous intravenous ketamine treatment. They will monitor patients using 0 to 10 numerical pain rating scale, 0 to 3 qualitative pain rating scale (0=none, 1=mild, 2=moderate, 3=severe), headache diary, and depression screening. In addition, they will be checking blood levels of ketamine metabolites, such as norketamine, hydroxynorketamine, hydroxyketamine, and dehydroxyketamine, at times 0 hr, 24 hr, 48 hr, 72 hr, and just before the end of the infusion to correlate these levels with response to treatment. Follow up visits will then be after 2 weeks and 2 months following discharge from the hospital. The official start date for this study was March 22, 2019, and the estimated study completion date will be March 2021.
As a neurologist, I see headaches every day in my practice. These studies provide new hope for my headache patients and everyone else suffering from chronic migraines or daily persistent headaches. Sometimes, the treatments we currently have available do work. I frequently use amitriptyline, topiramate, or propranolol as prophylactic headache medications in my neurology practice. The new class of CGRP antagonists are opening new avenues for potential treatment for patients who have gone too long without success. However, no one treatment works for everyone. Everyone’s body chemistry is different. All too often, unfortunately, I find myself using one medication after another with either no improvement or a debilitating adverse effect. This is where new treatments are desperately needed. If you suffer from refractory migraines, then you know the frustration and suffering that goes along with it. Ketamine may work for certain patients, and it is great to have another option with good evidence with apparently only mild adverse effects. More research is needed but this opens up more possibilities for success.
At StrIVeMD Wellness and Ketamine, we are a team of neurologists, anesthesiologists, and functional medicine physicians who bring a comprehensive and individualized approach to headache and migraine treatment. As stated in our other blog Headaches: Don’t Suffer in Silence, you need to treat the whole body while treating the headache, or sometimes even before. If you have already been on a merry-go-round of medications or do not want to take that unfortunate ride, consider the whole body approach to wellness and headache treatment. This will potentially include dietary changes, IV vitamin/hydration supplementation, exercise, GI management, and sleep hygiene. Now that we have evidence that supports the potential use of IV ketamine infusions for the treatment of refractory chronic migraines and daily persistent headaches, it increases our chances of success.
At StrIVeMD Wellness and Ketamine, we’re committed to helping you access Ketamine treatments quickly and safely. We offer a range of different nutrient therapies to suit your needs – and we can often offer same day appointments or a discreet home visit.
If you’re looking for IV therapy for burnout in the Chicago area, make an appointment with StrIVeMD Wellness and Ketamine by calling 847-213-0990 or email us here.
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