STIMULATING nerves in the neck with mild electrical pulses appears to offer relief to people with chronic migraine.

Stephen Silberstein of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and his colleagues studied 157 people fitted with a device that periodically stimulates the occipital nerves that feed up the neck into the rear of the brain.

In 105 of the participants, the device was active for three months, while in the others it was switched off. The researchers found that the active device reduced the average number of migraines per month from 22 to 16 – twice the reduction seen when it was switched off (Cephalalgia, DOI: 10.1177/0333102412462642).

“Presuming the therapy continues to be effective, I would expect the patients it benefits to retain the implant for life,” says Silberstein. The mechanism by which it works remains unknown, he says, but recent research in animals suggests that it reduces concentrations of a pain neurotransmitter in the nerves.

The device was approved a year ago in Europe, but is still awaiting approval in the US.