New migraine drugs offer patients hope

New preventive and acute treatments are reducing the frequency and duration of migraine attacks for many patients at the headache clinic at LKH Graz, ORF reported.

Migraine can significantly disrupt daily life. Some patients experience several attacks a month, lasting up to three days. Between 10 and 15 percent of people in Styria suffer from migraine, with women affected two to three times as often as men.

Stress is one of the main triggers, said Tamara Gattringer, head of the headache clinic. For patients with frequent or severe attacks, the clinic is using new medicines, including a monthly antibody injection and a new tablet.

The injection is initially administered by a general practitioner, although patients can later inject it themselves. The tablet is taken every other day as a preventive treatment and can also be used as an acute medicine on the other days if an attack occurs.

Gattringer said most patients at the clinic respond very well to the new preventive medicines in everyday clinical practice. Side effects are also less common than with older treatments.

The migraine injection has been available in Austria since 2018, while the new tablet was introduced in autumn 2025. Health insurance covers the cost of the medicines only when conventional preventive treatments are insufficient or not tolerated.