Cost effective treatment for cluster headaches found

Following a successful trial, it has been found that gammaCore can help to reduce the number of Cluster headaches by up to 50 percent.

According to a paper in the Journal of Headache and Pain, “the treatment of cluster headache is challenging and many of the commonly used preventive medications are associated with serious safety risks, poor tolerability, and/or marginal efficacy.”

The trial found that non-invasive stimulation of the vagus nerve (nVNS) is a cost effective therapy for cluster headache.  These findings were based on reductions in medication use and improvements in quality of life. 

The 97 participants, at ten sites across Europe that took part in the trial, were randomized into two groups - one using the gammaCore device plus the standard of care, and the other the standard of care alone.

It was revealed that 40 percent of patients using gammaCore in addition to the standard of care had up to 50 percent reduction in the number of weekly cluster headache attacks compared with 8 percent (p<0.001) in patients treated with the standard of care alone.  

The publication also notes that further economic benefits would have been found had reduced visits to clinics been taken into account.

The lead investigator of the PREVA trial, Doctor Charly Gaul, Head of the Migraine and Headache clinic Königstein, Germany stated, “It has been previously shown that gammaCore is an effective preventative against cluster attacks, but now we can see that it also reduces costs.”

In addition to the primary endpoint, i.e., reduction in attack frequency, the PREVA study also collected a variety of quality of life and economic measures, which permitted the modelling of cost-effectiveness reported on in this publication. 

The current paper highlights a 25 percent reduction in costs associated with acute treatments such as zolmitriptan, sumatriptan and inhaled oxygen, which led to a savings in medication usage of approximately €1,736 (£1,366) per patient per year, and an average total cost savings of €2,799 (£2,202) per patient per year.  In all scenarios modelled, nVNS was more cost-effective than the current standard practice.

“These results are very important in extending our understanding of the value of gammaCore in the cluster headache population, and to healthcare systems. We need this information so that we can encourage payors and doctors to use this new treatment, particularly as there are so few safe options,” commented JP Errico founder and Chief Executive Officer of electroCore.