The New Era Of Disease Modifying Migraine Drugs (DMMDs)

On the occasion of Migraine Awareness Week 2019, we’ve invited Martina Guglielmetti, resident in Internal Medicine at the University of Sassari and junior headache researcher, to tell us more about the so called ‘disease modifying migraine drugs’ and their mode of action. For more details on this topic and on recent advances in migraine treatment, read The Journal of Headache and Pain’s current thematic series ‘The changing face of migraine’.

Martina Guglielmetti 1 Sep 2019

Migraine treatment has almost always relied on repurposing medication developed to treat other conditions. However, the emergence of novel preventative drugs, bespoke for migraine is in reach.

Migraine is the most common debilitating disease in the world, affecting about 14% of the global population, or one billion people worldwide. It is much more prevalent in women than men, with one in five women experiencing a migraine in their lifetime, compared to one man in 16. The Global Burden of Disease 2016 report considers migraine to be the third most common and second most debilitating disease.