Migraine headaches may one day be zapped away with a hand-held magnetic stimulation device applied to the cranium, researchers say.

“It’s believed that people with migraine have overactive neurons in the brain or the cells in the brain are more active than in people without migraine,” Dr. Brian Grosberg, a neurologist at Montefiore Headache Center in New York, told Reuters Health.

“When a migraine trigger is encountered, these neurons or cells fire in a wave and this traveling wave of excitable cells spreads across the surface of the brain and after it spreads there is an area of reduced activity,” he explained. The effect of this process may be to cause a pre-migraine aura, which people often describe as seeing spots or wavy lines or blurring.

Strong magnetic fields, generated by a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) device, may be the solution.

“It’s thought that delivery of a very short pulse of TMS applied to the back of the head as the aura begins may stop this traveling wave of excitability over the brain and abort the aura as well as either preventing the migraine or diminishing its intensity,” Grosberg said.

In initial testing in migraine sufferers, pain was significantly reduced with TMS compare with inactive “placebo” treatment, as was nausea and sensitivity to light and sound.

“TMS is actually something that has been used for years for medical diagnostic purposes so it’s been shown to be a safe form of therapy,” Grosberg pointed out.

Based on these promising early studies, neurologists at several U.S. research centers are recruiting migraine patients for more definitive trials of the TMS device. People who suffer one to eight migraines per month with visual aura are eligible.

“Right now, there is very little available on the market, if anything, to treat the aura of migraine,” Grosberg commented, “and many people actually say that aura is just as bad if not worse than the pain.”

Migraine sufferers interested in the TMS research project may contact the Montefiore Headache Center at 718-930-4321.