Neurological Advisory Committee meeting presentation
That was the comment from Dr Brian Anderson, Chair of Pharmac’s Neurological Advisory Committee, when speaking about the collection of stories we gave to Pharmac and the Committee about people’s experiences of living with migraine in Aotearoa New Zealand.These stories made an impression. No one can deny the reality of migraine as a disabling and life-limiting neurological condition when confronted with multiple accounts from multiple individuals about the destructive impact of migraine on wo...
September 20, 2023Highlights from International Headache Congress 2023
The International Headache Society (IHS) is the leading international headache charity, which exists to promote awareness and knowledge about headache worldwide, through science, education and advocacy.They publish the International Classification of Headache Disorders, which underpins the diagnosis of migraine and other headache disorders. Their official journal, Cephalalgia, publishes ground-breaking research on all aspects of headache.And every two years, they organise a conference, the ...
September 19, 2023WINZ contributes to Emgality costs
There aren’t many people in New Zealand who are on a benefit because of migraine, despite migraine being a common and disabling disease, that can seriously impair people’s ability to work. But if you are, and you want to try the new migraine medication Emgality, but can’t afford it, here’s a story of hope.Cheryl (not her real name) has lived with migraine for most of her life. From a child, she had ‘bad heads’ that made her vomit, but in a family of six children, there was no spare m...
September 14, 2023What the Women’s Health Strategy means for people with migraine in Aotearoa
In July 2023, the Ministry of Health launched six new health strategies, the Pae Ora | Healthy Futures Strategies, as mandated by new legislation (the Pae Ora Act) that underpinned the restructuring of the health system.All of these strategies are important and set the direction for health services for the next decade. Three strategies were completely new – the Pacific/Te Mana Ola, Rural and Women’s Health Strategies.Migraine Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand was involved in consultation for t...
August 29, 2023Lack of medicine access contributing to health workforce shortage
Despite the hedging of various Ministers of Health, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that our healthcare workforce is in crisis.People are waiting weeks to see a GP. Between 2019 and 2022, 28% of general practices had fully closed their books. This was due to factors such as staff shortages, workload and burnout. According to a report released 9 August 2023, just to maintain the status quo of GPs (the current ratio of GP per head of our ageing population), we would need 317 more GPs every yea...
August 22, 2023What I learnt from a headache specialist
The New Zealand Pain Society is an organisation that promotes education and training in all areas of pain management and research. It regularly organises webinars for members, and on 10 August 2023 hosted Migraine Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand (MFANZ) to present an “Update on migraine and its management and survey insights on living with migraine in Aotearoa New Zealand.”Dr Rosamund Hill, neurologist and headache specialist and member of MFANZ’s clinical advisory group, presented on migr...
August 14, 2023Twenty three survey key insight reports published
In August 2022, Migraine Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand undertook the first online survey of people with migraine in NZ (the Migraine in Aotearoa New Zealand survey).We did this because there was no information about what it was like to live with migraine in NZ, the range of treatments people were using or would like to try, the quality of care from different health professionals and the impact on work and other activities.We received 530 responses to the survey and have used these in an applic...
August 1, 2023Medsafe recommends atogepant be added to medication schedule
Medsafe has recommended the gepant medication atogepant (Qulipta) be added to the New Zealand Medicines Schedule. Atogepant is used to prevent migraine and is taken daily as an oral tablet.Atogepant is the first gepant to apply for approval for use in New Zealand, and was recommended to be added to the Medicines Schedule at the Medsafe Medicines Classification Committee meeting held on 25 May 2023, with the minutes published on 4 July.A recommendation by Medsafe is the first step for medication ...
July 13, 2023New migraine questions in the next New Zealand Health Survey
A year ago in June 2022, Migraine Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand applied to the Ministry of Health to add questions about migraine to the New Zealand Health Survey, a national survey of over 13,000 adults.This month we received the positive news that questions we asked for have been included in the 2023/24 survey, and will go into the field in July.This is a huge step forward for migraine research in Aotearoa New Zealand.The last time the Ministry of Health asked a question about migraine was 1...
July 3, 2023Cluster headache and migraine
Migraine is not the only debilitating headache-related condition. One of its close cousins is cluster headache. Cluster headache has some things in common with migraine, including some overlap in treatment, but it’s usually a distinct and separate diagnosis....
June 22, 2023New reports again highlight poor access to modern medicines in New Zealand
Photo credit: Front cover, New Zealand's Medicines Landscape 2022/23, Medicines NZ...
June 12, 2023Why the Minister of Health’s recent comments sting
On May 7 2023, The New Zealand Minister of Health, Dr Ayesha Verrall, was interviewed by Jake Tame for TVNZ’s Q + A to discuss the government’s plan to protect the health system over winter and the general state of the health system.Near the end of the interview, Dr Verrall was asked about Pharmac’s funding of medications, specifically about the recent approval to fund the life-saving medication Trikafta for people with cystic fibrosis. In her answer, Dr Verrall implied that campaigns run ...
June 8, 2023Migraine and partners: A tale of two halves
Helena* recounts her experiences of ‘always’ and ‘never’ feeling judged or misunderstood by a spouse or partner because of migraine.‘You always get sick when we visit my parents,’ my husband would complain, petulantly. As if it were my fault and I deliberately brought on a migraine attack. Or, worse, that I found it stressful to visit his parents and that was why I would have an attack. He thought that’s how it worked. And that reflected badly on me, as how could I find being with ...
May 30, 2023Gepants in New Zealand – an update
Gepants are new oral migraine medications specifically developed for migraine. Gepants are a type of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitor, targeting the same peptide as the injectable CGRP medications currently available in New Zealand, Aimovig and Emgality.Four gepants are approved overseas for use:Atogepant (Qulipta)Ubrogepant (Ubrelvy)Rimegepant (Nurtec ODT)Zavegepant (Zavzpret)Gepants come as an oral tablet (zavegepant also comes as a nasal spray) and were originally developed to...
May 22, 2023Getting Emgality from your pharmacy
You’ve decided to try Emgality (galcanezumab) for migraine prevention, you’ve got your prescription from an obliging doctor and now you have to get the prescription filled from a local pharmacy.Unfortunately, not all pharmacies are up-to-date with this new migraine treatment and some people have had issues with getting their prescription for Emgality filled for a reasonable price. We know Emgality is expensive - but being told it will cost $1,000 an injection is enough to bring on a migraine...
May 16, 2023Long-term use of migraine preventive medications
There’s very little about managing migraine that’s easy.This is especially true when our migraine attacks become so severe or frequent that they can’t be adequately controlled with acute medication and we have to consider preventive therapy. Unlike acute medication, which we take at the time of a migraine attack, preventive therapy means we’re committed to taking medication every day (or an injection every four weeks, in the case of the new calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) treatmen...
May 3, 2023Anti-seizure medications and migraine
Even though they were developed to treat seizure disorders, anti-seizure medicines are commonly used for migraine prevention. However, they only work about half of the time and they are not easy to take, having multiple and often unpleasant side effects.Anti-seizure medicines that can be recommended for migraine prevention include topiramate (Topamax), sodium valproate (Epilim), gabapentin (Neurontin) and lamotrigine (Lamictal).From the Migraine in Aotearoa New Zealand Survey 2022, 30% (n=148) h...
April 26, 2023GPs encouraged to become familiar with CGRP medications for migraine
Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) medications. They’re without doubt this century’s revolution in migraine treatment. Including both injectable monoclonal antibodies (e.g. Emgality) and oral tablets (gepants), they’re the first pharmaceuticals specifically developed for migraine, based on scientific research on how migraine attacks originate in the brain. They target CGRP, a neuropeptide involved in the cascade of pain signals that causes a migraine attack and act to prevent attacks f...
April 11, 2023Celebrating our first birthday
Migraine Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand is one year old. And in compliance with the advice that people with migraine receive to moderate their lifestyles, instead of clinking champagne and chowing into cake, we’re taking a moment to catch our breath and meditate on the happy moments over the past year. It felt like a slow birth, but it was only five months from the first online meeting of the three co-founders at the end of October 2021 until we were registered as an Incorporated Society...
April 5, 2023It's our first birthday, but you get the presents
This time one year ago, Migraine Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand was officially launched. To celebrate our first birthday, we’re giving away five copies of Dr Katy Munro’s book Managing Your Migraine.We think this book is already a migraine literature classic (check out our review of it here). Now we’ve been incorporated for a year, many more funding streams are open to us to apply for.Funders always want to know what we do for our community, so we’re asking you.To be in the running to w...
April 1, 2023Acute treatment for migraine attacks
Migraine is such a common disease, you’d expect all health professionals would know the best treatments and how to manage acute attacks.Unfortunately, this often isn’t the case. Migraine is commonly undertreated and mistreated. For example, we often hear from members in our community that they had not been told about or offered triptans for migraine attacks. Triptans are a migraine-specific treatment, unlike generic pain relievers such as aspirin and paracetamol. They’ve been available sin...
March 15, 2023Phases of a migraine attack
We’ve become more familiar with the phrase ‘Migraine is more than just a headache’ but what does that mean, exactly?In one sense, it means that the type of headache experienced during a migraine attack is usually more severe than the garden-variety tension-type headache. A migraine headache is described as throbbing, stabbing, pulsating, pounding, unbearable and often starts on one side of the head. Tension-type headaches are generally milder, experienced as a tight band across the forehea...
February 28, 2023A positive response from Pharmac
On 20 January 2023, we sent Pharmac a letter, signed by all four of New Zealand’s headache specialists, raising concerns about its slow handling of the funding application for erenumab (Aimovig), the (in)appropriateness of their review process and how this would affect the application we made in November 2022, for the funding of galcanezumab (Emgality).On 15 February 2023, we got a reply. That’s a big step up from the speed at which they’re reviewing erenumab. It was signed off by the Chie...
February 20, 2023What’s wrong with Will Jordan having 'a migraine'?
What a week! No sooner did the wrath of Cyclone Gabrielle move away from Aotearoa leaving devastation in its wake, than Kiwis were hit with the news that All Blacks and Crusader Will Jordan will miss the start of the Super Rugby season due to “diagnosis of a migraine-related condition.”Coach, Scott Robertson explained further: “It is a migraine, it’s not concussion based.” (NZ Herald, Stuff)"It is a migraine.'It's a common phrase, but for us, it clangs, discordant with the keen empathy...
February 16, 2023Feeling judged or misunderstood by your partner because of migraine
It’s bad enough living with a chronic neurological condition that causes unpredictable attacks of pain, nausea, fatigue and brain dysfunction for no apparent reason. It’s even worse when the people you love and live with are not supportive when these attacks happen.Migraine is one of those diseases that is commonly misunderstood, with people believing that it is ‘just a headache’ and underestimating the disability associated with migraine attacks, especially when these are frequent. That...
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