After shock - Shock treatment for migraine relief
Electrical or electromagnetic devices have come into vogue among migraine researchers Amanda Schaffer In ancient Rome, patients with unbearable head pain were sometimes treated with jolts from the electricity-producing black torpedo fish, or electric ray. Electric fish have long disappeared from the medical armamentarium. But recently, electrical or electromagnetic devices that hark back to the head-zapping torpedo fish have come into vogue among the country’s prominent migraine researchers. Two different kinds of stimulatory devices are now in large-scale clinical trials for possible use in patients with the most severe migraine cases. The the two kinds of stimulatory approaches are occipital nerve stimulation, or ONS, and transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS. In occipital nerve stimulation, a pacemakerlike device is connected to electrodes placed at the back of the head just under the skin. Electrical current is delivered through these electrodes, with the goal of inhibiting or