Chronic Migraine Awareness

Written By Nancy Harris-Bonk

Presented by Chronic Migraine Awareness, Inc.

* Disclaimer * CMA does not endorse this or any product.

Here’s a great offer for people with migraine disease during National Migraine and Headache Awareness Month – Therancia, the makers of  Nerivio® are offering a $50 rebate for new prescriptions dispensed during June 2020.  Nerivio, is an FDA-approved prescription wearable device for the acute treatment of a migraine attack.
 
While I was in Scottsdale last November at the American Headache Society’s annual Headache Symposium with Cat Charrette-Dykes, founder and president of Chronic Migraine Awareness, Inc. we met the executive team of Theranica, the makers of Nerivio. CEO, co-founder Alon Ironi, COO, co-founder Ronan Jashek and Scott Szymanski, President Theranica USA took time out of their very busy schedule to speak with us at length about their new device. After a detailed explanation and video, Cat, was starting to get a migraine attack wanted to try it.

How it works
When a migraine attack starts, the non-pharmacological, wireless, remote Nerivio device is placed around your upper arm, connect it to your Smart phone or tablet and begin the treatment, which lasts for 45 minutes. According to the Theranica site, the makers of Nervivio it “stimulates upper arm peripheral nerves to induce conditioned pain modulation (CPM) – an endogenous analgesic mechanism in which conditioning stimulation inhibits pain in remote body regions”.  Cat tried a 45-minute treatment and felt better afterwards, but was not pain free, which is nothing new for Cat.

My personal thoughts

I’ve been skeptical about devices until I started using Cefaly every night a few years ago for migraine prevention. I have seen a bit of improvement in my migraine attack frequency and severity using Cefaly, in conjunction with Botox. After the conversation with the Nerivio team in November, I was curious about adding a non-pharmalogical treatment to help with acute attacks.

 I started Nerivio in April and must disclose I received the device for free and given the opportunity to write a review. I warned Alon that I would be truthful in my findings. Here’s the thing – for the most part my review is positive.

The device comes in a small, well packed box with instructions, an arm band and extender for larger arms, and the device. I do hope in future shipments they only send the device, not the entire arm band and case again, that would be wasteful. The instructions are very clear, easy to understand and I immediately downloaded the app upon opening it so I would be prepared when my next migraine attack arrived, which didn’t take long.

I placed the device on my upper arm, wrapped the arm band around it, turned it on, and held it close to my phone as the device connected to the app. The treatment is 45 minutes and the pulses, which are sending signals through the brain stem and spinal cord according to GIER UP video, an optional part of the treatment.  My brain stem was processing the electrical signals that were being sent via the device to stop the migraine attack.

One of the nice things about this device is the ability to adjust the pulses, which at first were uncomfortable, but tolerable.  The first time I used it I only had it up to 17% and the limit is 100%, I’m now up to 35% which took 10 uses. I also really enjoy the guided video that comes with each treatment. I find it relaxing and it allows me to concentrate on something other than my pain. The pace of the video is too fast, which I’ve mentioned to the company and it would be nice to have the video available when not using the device.

I did find my arm was tender after the first few times; there is a warning about that and claim it’s not an issue. In my experience, my arm feels fine after each treatment now, no lingering effects. I don’t believe devices are covered by insurance and the cost for 12 uses is currently $99, which is $8.25 per use. If you take advantage of the $50 rebate this month, the cost becomes even more attractive. I will continue to use this device, I’ve reordered as long as I find it beneficial, which it has been so far. It’s comforting to know there is another option out there for us!


You can read more in the prescribing information here; https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/reviews/DEN180059.pdf