Health

Health: Migraine Relief

PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― In health, Medical Reporter Stephanie Stahl has information on how doctors are using a jolt of energy to fight migraine pain.

Migraine sufferers know how debilitating the pain can be. For some, the pain is almost never ending.

But now there is hope as new devices are hitting a nerve and putting a stop to the agony.

10 years ago, Rocia Viscara was in a serious car accident. A year later, she developed a hidden wound.

"I've had a headache all the time for the past nine years," said Rocia.

Over the years, she's tried just about anything to relieve the pain from alternative therapies like acupuncture, to a variety of drugs.

"I've tried a lot of different medications and with medications came side effects," said Rocia.

That's when she turned to a device called an occipital nerve stimulator.

"We now have a new treatment for somebody whom nothing has ever helped in the past," said Dr. Stephen Silberstein, Director of Thomas Jefferson University's Headache Center.

He is overseeing a study looking at using nerve stimulators to end migraines.

"What we have shown, by doing images of the brain, stimulating the nerve in the back of the head can actually turn off pain inside the brain itself," said Dr. Silberstein.

A thin wire was surgically implanted in the back of Rocia's head. It runs under her skin down to her hip. There it's hooked to a stimulator which has also been implanted under her skin.

"When we turn the stimulator on, over a period of time, many patients have significant and drastic pain relief," said Dr. Silberstein.

The pain hasn't completely stopped for Rocia, but she has seen an improvement.

"I've had it on for about three months and every month it gets a little bit better. I'm hoping just to have more good days where it doesn't get so intense that it's hard to function," said Rocia.

Jefferson is still enrolling patients for this study. If you're interested contact the Headache Center.

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