Author Interviews, Emergency Care, Neurological Disorders, NYU, Pain Research / 30.06.2016
NYU Neurologist Comments On New Guidelines For Emergency Room Treatment of Migraines
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Mia Minen, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Neurology
NYU Langone Medical Center
MedicalResearch.com Editor’s note: The American Headache Society has issued new guidelines on “The Management of Adults With Acute Migraine in the Emergency Department” (1,2)
Dr. Minen, Director of Headache Services at NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses these new guidelines below.
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for these new guidelines?
How common/severe is the issue of migraine or headache presentation to the ER?
Dr. Minen: These guidelines were needed because previous research shows that there are about 1.2. million visits to the emergency department (ED) each year for migraine, and over 25 different medications are sometimes used for treatment. Many of these medications don’t have evidence-based data to back their usage, and opioids are especially likely to be prescribed in between 60 and 70 percent of these cases, despite their lack of efficacy and risks. The American Headache Society convened an expert panel to review the existing evidence on all the medications used to treat migraines in the ED, and we developed these new treatment guidelines.
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