Migraine magnet therapy - Behind the Headlines on today's story

[Chris_Peters]

A really good round up of the science behind the stories in today's papers on a new migraine magnet therapy.

nhs.uk/news/2014/01January/...

[JossS]

Bit of background for anyone with time on their hands:

Short abstract from a published paper:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/239...

Note that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has also been used for the treatment of depressions and work has been carried out for other conditions such as Auditory Hallucinations

psychiatry.yale.edu/researc...

And of course, dear old Wikipedia:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans...

[drmatthewl]

Is it true that no one has evidence for how it works but that it just does? What are the most plausible theories?

[JossS in reply to drmatthewl]

I think (though I am guessing wildly) that this is coming out of the same draw as electric shock therapy. The magnetic side of this is a little misleading - from the physics point of view this is good old induction, making use of the relationship between magnets and electric currents; the magnets are stimulating the production of small electric currents in the brain. But unlike directly applying an electric shock, the effect is limited, only producing the currents in a small, immediate area around the magnets and limited in depth (to around 50mm or so). Consequently, this does not have the debilitating effect of controversial electric shock therapy - I doubt you feel a thing with this.

However, exactly what effect applying an electric current to a brain cell or to pathways has to any condition has mostly been described by results rather than physical evidence - a demonstration, perhaps, of how much we still have to learn about how the brain functions.

[Chris_Peters Sense About Science]

Bit of info from the Migraine Trust website:

News Item: migrainetrust.org/news-new-...

NICE guidance: publications.nice.org.uk/tr...

Link to manufacturers patient information literature: migrainetrust.org/assets/x/...

Blog written by Dr Mark Weatherall (Migraine Trust trustee): migrainetrust.org/news-new-...