Cefaly. No, it's not a village in Wales, nor is it a type of cheese (actually, it might be for all I know, but nevermind.) It is instead a new all singing, all dancing miracle cure for migraines, according to its manufacturers anyway. So, in our usual fashion, let's take a look at the evidence and see what on earth it is, and whether it is worth spending money on.
It's a medical headband device that you wear on your noggin, around your forehead. This means that you can easily pretend to be the Empress from the Never Ending Story. The downside is that you'll have to pay somewhere in the region of £250 to do so, plus electrodes and batteries. So, for that amount of money, you want to know that what you're getting is going to provide you with a bit more than simply cosplaying as a child-like film character.
It is essentially a TENS machine, which applies an electric current to the middle of the forehead via self adhesive electrodes. Anyone who has ever used one of those godawful Slendertone thingies on their stomach is probably right now recoiling in horror at the idea of having to endure such torture right between their eyes- I know I am. But first I suppose we need to see if it works- after all, migraines are horrible things which can massively impact on the quality of life of sufferers. Those who are desperate may be quite happy to have their foreheads electrocuted.
Its been approved by the FDA, which is nice. What isn't quite so nice is the fact that this approval is based on one trial- the one and only trial in existence, despite what the manufacturers would have you believe.
This trial included 67 patients who suffered at least 2 migraine attacks per month. Although small, this trial is well designed, with an identical sham stimulator being used as a comparison to the test product. After three months of daily 20 minute usage, the mean number of migraine days in users of Cefaly was significantly reduced (6.94vs 4.88, p=0.023), but were not significantly changed in the sham group. But here's the thing: the difference between groups was not significant (p=0.054).
There was significantly higher percentage of responders (defined as ≥ 50% reduction in no of migraine days per month) in the Cefaly group compared to the sham group (38.24% vs 12.12%, p=0.023).
There was no significant difference in severity of migraine.
Although some of the results in this trial are encouraging, it is limited by its very small size. It is worth noting that the authors and manufacturers claim that this trial proves that the product is effective at preventing migraine, despite the lack of a significant between-group difference in the primary outcome of migraine days.
Other papers have been published in the literature regarding this product, and the manufacturers try their best on their website to make them look like they are real trials. However, these range from letters, conference abstracts, experiments in healthy adults, and case studies- not robust clinical trials.
An uncontrolled survey of 2313 Cefaly rental users found that roughly just over half of patients were satisfied with the treatment and would be willing to buy the device. The rest of the patients stopped therapy- that's a pretty high number of people. There are a number of methodological and confounding problems with this study, so the conclusions drawn from it should be considered unreliable.
Being a rental user is one thing- at least they were able to try it out before taking the plunge and handing over a rather large wad of cash. In the UK, though, it seems that the rental option isn't readily available. £250 is an awful lot of money to spend on a product, especially when, for roughly half of its purchasers, its going to be used a couple of times then lie in a cupboard, forlorn and forgotten about.
Let's have a think about compliance. To get the best results, you are supposed to use it for 20 minutes per day. Now, initially that might not sound like too big a deal, but if you work, have a social life, go to the gym, or spend every waking minute building a house in Minecraft, finding 20 minutes a day for something that could be, in most cases, painful, is probably pretty unappealing, and impractical. I can't see too many people who will be able to religiously use this product exactly as intended in the long term. I'm guessing that in most cases its going to go the way of that bit of exercise equipment that you bought 5 years ago and that you've used twice and now only trip over on occasion.
So to summarise: there is a little bit of encouraging data, though it's not as compelling as the manufacturers would like us to think. It's extremely expensive, impractical, and probably pretty unpleasant to use. Its an interesting device, but one that I am placing firmly in the "Yet to be convinced by larger trials" pile.
Hxxx
