The effect of treatment onset time on acute efficacy in migraine patients treating with remote electrical neuromodulation (REN)

Aim: To evaluate the effect of treatment onset-time on the effectiveness of remote electrical neuromodulation (REN) for acute treatment of migraine. Methods: A real-world evidence study on migraine patients who treated with REN. REN treatments initiated within one hour of migraine attack onset (headache or aura) were classified as “early”; those initiated after one hour were classified as “late”. Treatments with baseline and two-hour reports were termed “evaluable” and analyzed. Results: Among 55,261 patients (37.9 ± 18.5 years, 83.4% female) who conducted 586,981 treatments, 56.5% were administered early. Effectiveness was calculated from “evaluable” treatments, varying between 6413 and 35,581 treatments depending on the outcome. Early treatments yielded higher responder-rates than late (p < 0.001, significant following Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons) for pain relief (65.1% vs. 46.6%; Δ = 18.5%), pain freedom (28.8% vs. 14.5%; Δ = 14.3%), functional disability relief (58.1% vs. 49.3%; Δ = 8.8%), functional disability freedom (35.4% vs. 20.9%; Δ = 14.5%), and freedom from photophobia (26.9% vs. 19.0%; Δ = 7.9%), phonophobia (34.0% vs. 25.9%; Δ = 8.1%) and nausea/vomiting (51.5% vs. 38.7%; Δ = 12.8%). Similarly, patients consistently treating early with REN (in 50% or more of their treatments) experienced higher efficacy (p < 0.001). Similar effects were seen in youths. Conclusions: Early acute treatment with REN enhanced patient outcomes by up to two-fold compared to late treatment onset. Educating providers and patients to “treat as early as possible” boosts clinical and patient-centered results.