TMS is an abbreviation for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. As yours truly has reported earlier, it has shown some good potential to abort migraines in "aura" stage.
There are, however, a couple of significant drawbacks to that technology - the placement of the magnetic coil has to be exact (as in using a brain-scan to determine where to aim it) with a price-tag close to a life-time supply of triptans being even larger handicap for adopting this new migraine-abortive gadget.
There are some interesting noises coming out of UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in Queen Square, London. Prof. Vince Walsh seems to recreate the results of TMS with what looks, from the description, like two electrodes attached to a battery. Those electrodes (for whatever reason they are pink and yellow, just to complete the mental picture) placed on the patient's head and zapping the brain with weak electrical currents produce results similar to those observed when using TMS but with longer lasting effect, according to the good professor.
"Changing the "excitability" of brain cells" seems to be the underlying idea behind the new gizmo and it's yet to be seen if it will work well on migraine patients. There are already, however, some commercially available devices in the US that are similar to the one Prof. Walsh is inventing. They are used mainly for treating depression and anxiety with some that supposedly can act as localized anesthetic. Yours truly has a bit of familiarity with them but is too lazy to write more on the subject. If anyone is interested, please do ask, one can hardly miss an opportunity to do another write-up that evolves zapping people with charged particles.
related article: Shooting yourself in the head is finally an option for treating migrane headaches
link: DIY brain therapy could halt migraines
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Aborting Migraines by Attaching Electrodes to Your...
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