Using a novel visualization tool (Pez PlotsTM), we demonstrate that some lifestyle, dietary, physical and emotional factors can modify the severity of migraine attacks.
These new factors are exciting because they demonstrate the potential to address an age-old question, ‘What can I do to decrease the severity of my migraine attacks?'
Vancouver, BC, Canada (PRWEB) September 08, 2017
For the first time Curelator Headache, a novel digital health platform, has sorted risk factors for each individual user’s migraine attacks into sets of highly personalized “modifiers” of migraine severity, according to new data presented at the 18th Congress of the International Headache Society.
“'Migraine Severity Modifiers’ are not always the same as an individual’s triggers and protectors. Giving people with migraine a digital tool that can accurately identify their personal ‘modifiers’ should help improve their ability to prevent attacks or reduce their pain through behavior modifications,” explains Dr. Andrew Hershey, MD, PhD, FAHS, Endowed Chair of Neurology, Director, Headache Center, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and one of the co-authors of the study.
“The fact that the risk factors responsible for triggering attacks are different from those that modify attack severity may help explain why it is so difficult for people to take control of their condition,” says Alec Mian PhD, CEO and founder of Curelator Headache. Dr. Mian adds, “These new factors are exciting because they demonstrate the potential to address an age-old question, ‘What can I do to decrease the severity of my migraine attacks?’ We call these factors, 'Migraine Severity Modifiers.'"
Curelator Headache, a novel digital application, collected data for 479 study participants with migraine: they had a mean age of 43 years; 88% were female; 41% resided in the U.S. and 40% in the U.K.
In the course of analyzing and sorting each individual participant’s factors into triggers (associated with increasing risk of attack) and protectors (associated with lessening risk of migraine attack, a concept that Curelator Headache has been pioneering since 2014), the data revealed a distinct subset of “modifiers” of migraine severity.
Ty Ridenour, Behavioral Epidemiologist at RTI International and Adjunct Professor at University of Pittsburgh and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and lead author commented, “This study shows the power of individualized data collection combined with innovative N=1 statistical approaches. The results clearly show the benefit of moving towards individualized medicine.”
About the study (1):
· Individuals with migraine registered to use a novel digital platform (Curelator HeadacheTM) 1) directly through a physician ‘coupon referral’ program, 2) via the Curelator website or 3) via the App store (currently iOS only).
· Following completion of baseline questionnaires, participants reported daily on headache occurrence, other symptoms associated with migraine attack, severity of headache pain, and exposure to 70 migraine risk factors (triggers and protectors).
· Risk factors spanned emotions, sleep qualities, environmental conditions and weather, lifestyle, diet, substance use, travel, and up to three additional self-selected triggers.
· Analyzed data spanned the first 90 days of participant reports. Relationships of risk factors to migraine attack occurrence and severity were determined using ‘N=1’ statistical methods, providing individual’s risk factor profile for both incidence and severity.
· Results from these analyses may inform personalized strategies to reduce incidence of migraine attacks as well as to modify severity of pain.
(1) N=1 Statistical Approaches to Examine Risk Factor Profiles of ICHD-3beta Classified Migraines within Individuals. Ty A. Ridenour1, Francesc Peris2, Gabriel Boucher2, Alec Mian2, Stephen Donoghue2, Andrew D. Hershey3.
1RTI International, North Carolina, 2Curelator Inc., Cambridge, 3Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, United States. Presented at IHS Congress 2017.
The International Headache Society is the world's leading membership organization for those with a professional commitment to helping people affected by headache. The theme of this year’s Congress is “New Horizons in Headache.”
About Curelator Inc.
Curelator is a patient-centric digital platform that enables patients, clinicians and healthcare providers to optimize individual therapeutic pathways in chronic diseases with episodic attacks.
Contact for further information: Sandy Bodner, sbodner(at)curelator(dot)com, 617-549-8523
