Providence, Rhode Island, Nov. 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Association of Migraine Disorders (AMD) is pleased to announce it has approved and funded two migraine research projects in 2021. With a mission to expand the understanding of migraine disease, the organization has a goal to fund three additional projects by year's end.
Research to help personalize migraine treatment
The first research project includes developing a program to help identify the various forms of migraine and how patients respond to treatments. This will help physicians personalize migraine treatment.
"We aim to build a tool that will allow rapid extraction of migraine patients from electronic medical records and their associated symptoms and treatment response, allowing us to study these more homogenous cohorts,” said Dr. William Renthal, Director of Headache Research, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “We aim to understand genetic differences that may drive treatment response to CGRP monoclonal antibodies."
The second project focuses on understanding the association between sleep apnea and migraine.
"The project will foster a more detailed understanding of the causal nature between sleep disorders--especially sleep-disordered breathing, such as obstructive sleep apnea-- and migraine, and address the question of whether proven therapies for sleep-disordered breathing also improve migraine outcomes, such as migraine frequency and intensity," said Dr. Eric Gruenthal, Sleep Medicine Fellow at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.
AMD has given more than $600,000 to migraine research, but there is more work left to be done.
Why More Research Is Needed
Despite being one of the most prevalent diseases in the world, migraine research is severely underfunded. National Institutes of Health funding for migraine research is less than 2% of federal funding for neurodegenerative diseases and less than 1% of funding for chronic diseases (Per NIH).
"Bringing in new ideas and approaches would significantly advance migraine research and ultimately patient care,” said Amynah Pradhan, PhD, Neuroscientist and Associate Professor at the University of Illinois.
Giving Tuesday
Millions of people are still not getting relief with current migraine treatments. AMD hopes to improve patient care by funding three additional projects by the end of 2021 through its Research Is Hope campaign. All donations up to $10,000 will be matched through December. Donations may fund projects investigating migraine and hormones, how migraine affects dizziness, and the role of genetics in migraine.
For more information on ways to donate, please visit Research Is Hope. For interviews with medical professionals or researchers in this campaign please contact melissa@migrainedisorders.org.
About the AMD Research Initiative
The AMD research initiative is led by a Research Advisory Committee consisting of 20 brilliant researchers and medical professionals who help identify knowledge gaps in migraine to influence future research projects.
About the Association of Migraine Disorders
The Association of Migraine Disorders is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2012 with a mission to expand the understanding of migraine through research, education and awareness. AMD has an advisory board consisting of a wide range of healthcare professionals that understand the spectrum of symptoms associated with this multi-system disease.
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