How Did Botox Come to Be Used in Migraine Treatment?

How Did Botox Come to Be Used in Migraine Treatment? (0:57)

Botox has been used in neurology for more than 30 years, says Emily Rubenstein Engel, MD, of the Dalessio Headache Center at Scripps Clinic. As it gained use as a cosmetic treatment, women realized headaches were going away, she explains.

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We've been using Botox in neurology for approximately 30 years for facial spasms, twitches and then doctors were finding that when they were treating their patients facial twitches that their wrinkles were going away. So the cosmetic doctors started using it like crazy as you know, the interesting thing is that the patients who go for cosmetic botox typically are women in their 40's and that's where migraine is typically firing up.

So these patients are going back to their cosmetic doctors and saying my headaches have gone away, and so that was part of how Botox was first recognized as maybe being helpful for migraine.