Migraine treatment ‘lagging'

Otago Daily Times

11-06-2025

University of Otago public health senior research fellow and Migraine Foundation co-founder Dr Fiona Imlach says New Zealand is lagging behind other countries when it comes to treating migraines. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
When it comes to funding and accessing migraine prevention medication and other therapies, New Zealand is "lagging behind" other countries.
University of Otago (Wellington) researchers examined the use of supplements and complementary therapies by 530 Kiwis with migraine disease, and found about half of them turned to treatments other than medication in an attempt to ease their symptoms.
The participants were asked about supplements such as magnesium, riboflavin (vitamin B2) and coenzyme Q10 and complementary therapies including acupuncture, biofeedback, neuromodulation devices, meditation, yoga and massage.
Study co-author, public health senior research fellow and Migraine Foundation co-founder Dr Fiona Imlach, said many people with migraine did not take medication to prevent migraine attacks, but non-pharmacological approaches could help.
"No previous research has looked at the use of these approaches in Aotearoa, so it's a new finding that about half of the 530 survey respondents were currently using a supplement, and even more, 58%, were using complementary therapy."
Although most non-pharmacological treatments were considered safe or low risk, the quality of evidence for their effectiveness could be low, Dr Imlach said.
The survey focused on treatments that were included in international guidelines on migraine management, including those not easily accessed in New Zealand such as neuromodulation devices, which worked by stimulating nerves in order to change the way pain signals in the brain were processed.
However, access to neuromodulation devices was limited and costly and previous distributors had pulled out of the New Zealand market, Dr Imlach said.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
"Neuromodulation devices and other therapies could be beneficial for both patients and for workplaces, by decreasing the number of days people are affected by migraine, improving quality of life and people's ability to work.
"These approaches can also be a good option for people who can't or don't want to take medication, such as during pregnancy.
"So even though people said they would like to try non-medication treatments as part of their migraine management plan, they can be expensive and hard to find information about," she said.
The survey also confirmed there was no single approach to migraine prevention that was universally effective, so people had to use trial and error in the hope of finding relief.
"For all of the treatments we asked about, there were many people who had tried them, but they didn't work or had side effects.
"There were also those who hadn't tried them before but wanted to.
"All of this speaks to the huge need for more effective migraine treatments, both medication and non-medication.
"New Zealand is lagging behind other countries with regards to funding and access to migraine-prevention medication and other therapies."
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