|
 Using the app twice a week was associated with an average of four
fewer headache days per month, according to the report in Nature
Digital Medicine.
"Migraine is now the second most disabling condition in terms of
disability-adjusted years lost," said lead author Dr. Mia Minen of
NYU Langone Health in New York City.
Migraines affect about 1 in 6 adults in the U.S., with women most at
risk.
"Previous research has shown that the best treatment for preventing
migraine is a combination of migraine medication and behavioral
therapy," Minen told Reuters Health by email. However, "patients
have significant difficulty accessing these safe, top evidence-based
treatments."
Minen and colleagues created RELAXaHEAD, an app based on the
technique of progressive muscle relaxation, a proven method of
migraine prevention, the authors note. The study team analyzed
whether patients recruited from a neurology clinic would use the app
regularly and whether they'd have fewer headache days.
During the study, 51 patients in their 30s and 40s who typically had
13 or more headache days per month were asked to complete a daily
headache diary and to do progressive muscle relaxation with the app
for 20 minutes a day for 90 days. Nearly one third of the
participants were considered to have severe migraine disability when
they enrolled, meaning they had missed considerable amounts of work,
school and family activities due to the headaches.
On average, participants used the app on 22 days per month, for
about 11 minutes per day. Roughly half used it once per week and a
third used it two or more times per week. Overall, those who used
the app twice per week had four fewer headache days the following
month, and those who used it once per week had two fewer headaches
days. Use of the app tended to drop over time.
Patients with higher depression scores were less likely to use the
daily headache diary, and those with higher anxiety scores were more
likely to use it.
[to top of second column] |
"The number of mobile health apps available in the iOS and Google
Play stores has ballooned, and recent studies show that most people
download an app but then rarely use it," Minen said. "Importantly,
we were able to get a considerable number of study participants to
use the app."
The researchers have received inquiries about the app from patients
with migraines outside the NYU Langone system, she noted. Although
it was created as a research tool, Minen's team is exploring ways to
expand access to the app or include it in office visits. They're
also studying whether the app can help healthcare providers who
don't know where to refer patients with migraines who want
behavioral therapy.
"I would encourage people who live with migraines to consider a
behavioral treatment," said Alice Pressman of Sutter Health in
Walnut Creek, California, who wasn't involved in the study.
"The great thing about starting a (behavioral therapy) BT is that
you don't have to stop your other treatments if you feel they are
effective," Pressman said by email. "BTs can be used as add-ons with
no added side effects."
However, an in-person a mindfulness-based stress reduction program
targeting migraines that was offered at her center was difficult for
some patients to attend due to time and location, Pressman said, so
an online program may help. At the same time, patients should know
that apps are still new and not fully studied.
"Research here is important to enable therapeutically effective and
safe smartphone apps. Lots of apps are offered that are not based on
any scientific evidence," said Thomas Dresler of the University of
Tuebingen in Germany, who wasn't involved in the study.
"There are a lot of migraine apps out there, but customers need to
know that the availability of an app per se does not guarantee
effectiveness, safety or the developers' adherence to specific
quality standards," Dresler said by email.
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2X9Iwa1 Nature Digital Medicine, online June
4, 2019.
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
