There is a significant unmet need for novel, effective, and well-tolerated acute migraine treatments. Remote electrical neuromodulation (REN) is a non-pharmacological, non-invasive, acute migraine treatment that stimulates upper arm peripheral nerves to induce conditioned pain modulation - an endogenous analgesic mechanism in which a conditioning stimulation inhibits pain in remote body regions. This review presents the method of action and the clinical data of REN and discusses its potential patient benefits. The clinically meaningful efficacy, together with a very favorable safety profile, suggests that REN may offer a promising alternative for the acute treatment of migraine and could be considered first-line treatment in some patients.
Keywords: acute migraine treatment; conditioned pain modulation; headache; migraine; remote electrical neuromodulation.
© 2019 American Headache Society.