Nasal spray works for kids with migraine

A nasal spray prescribed for adults with migraines can also help teenagers and younger children, even though their headaches are often different, a new study suggests.

The spray, AstraZeneca Plc's Zomig, did not work for the children and adolescents monitored but it relieved the pain of 39 percent of them two hours after treatment, the researchers reported at a meeting in Philadelphia of the American Headache Society.

"These kids are suffering with essentially no migraine-specific choices, and now finally there's some hope for them to help control disabling pain," Dr. Paul Winner, director of the Palm Beach Headache Center in Florida, told reporters.

An estimated 8 to 12 million American children and adolescents suffer from migraines, according to the American Headache Society. A migraine is a severe headache, often preceded by visual and other symptoms, that can disable a sufferer. It can cause nausea and hypersensitivity to light and sound.

Winner's team studied 248 children aged 12 to 17 all of whom at first treated their migraines with a placebo spray.

The 171 who reported no relief from the placebo were divided into two groups, one of which got another placebo and one that got Zomig, known generically as zolmitriptan.

One hour after treatment with the Zomig spray, 28 percent of the patients said they had no pain and 51 percent were able to resume normal activities. This compared to 10 percent of those who got the placebo who reported no pain after an hour.

Two hours later, 39 percent who used zolmitriptan reported their headaches were gone, compared to 19 percent of those who used the placebo spray.

Zolmitriptan is one of seven approved triptan drugs. Doctors are free to prescribe any Food and Drug Administration-approved drug to any patient as they see fit.