Smartphone App For Muscle Relaxation Reduces Migraine Disability In Ed Patients

A smartphone app for musculus relaxation importantly reduced migraine-related disablement successful patients visiting nan emergency department, a caller study shows.

Led by researchers from NYU Langone Health, nan study featured a smartphone-based app that guides patients pinch migraine done progressive musculus relaxation (PMR), an evidence-based curen for migraine successful which patients tense and past relax 1 musculus group astatine a time.

Published online October 16 successful JAMA Network Open, nan activity shows that nan percent of patients who had astatine slightest a five-point betterment successful a modular people of migraine-driven disablement astir doubled for those who utilized nan app versus those who did not. The study utilized nan Migraine Disability Assessment Score (MIDAS), a questionnaire that asks astir nan number of days complete 3 months that migraine caused a personification to miss work, school, aliases societal events.

Our findings item nan imaginable of smartphone-based interventions to empower patients successful managing their ain migraine, and successful reducing migraine-related disablement without medication."

Mia T. Minen, MD, MPH, lead study author, subordinate professor successful nan Departments of Neurology and Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Migraine consists of painful, recurrent attacks that tin past for hours aliases days, often pinch nausea, vomiting, aliases sensitivity to ray aliases sound. It affects much than 14 percent of group globally and is simply a predominant origin of repeated emergency section (ED) visits, opportunity nan study authors. Nearly half (46 percent) of patients discharged from nan ED pinch a migraine test revisit nan ED wrong 3 months.

"The RELAXaHEAD app is meant to trim migraine disablement and hopefully trim nan complaint astatine which patients return to nan emergency section for migraine," added Dr. Minen, head of headache investigation astatine NYU Langone.

Better nan much it is used

This objective proceedings progressive 69 participants aged 18 to 65 who visited NYU Langone Health's EDs for migraine betwixt 2019 and 2021. Participants were randomly assigned to usage either nan RELAXaHEAD app pinch progressive musculus relaxation (PMR) aliases to beryllium successful a power group that utilized only a headache diary.

The number of study patients who had astatine slightest a five-point betterment successful MIDAS people was 45.7 percent among those without nan PMR and 82.4 percent pinch PMR. The investigation squad besides recovered that those who utilized PMR much often knowledgeable amended outcomes, suggesting a dose-response relationship.

"While nan study did not find important differences successful nan number of monthly headache days, nan PMR group's betterment successful disablement is really meaningful," said Dr. Minen. Moving forward, her squad is conducting a large-scale objective study funded by nan National Institutes of Health to measure nan study app for group pinch migraine, not successful EDs but alternatively successful superior attraction settings, wherever specified patients astir often coming for care.

Along pinch Dr. Minen, study authors were Elizabeth Seng of Ferkauf of nan Graduate School of Psychology astatine Yeshiva University; Benjamin Friedman successful nan Department of Emergency Medicine astatine Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Richard Lipton successful nan Department of Neurology astatine Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Alexis George successful nan doctoral programme successful psychology astatine City University of New York, Kristina Fanning and Ryan Bostic of MIST Research and Statistical Consulting, and Scott Powers successful nan Department of Pediatrics astatine Cincinnati Children's Hospital. This investigation was supported by National Institutes of Health grants NCCIH K23 AT009706 and NIH NCATS UL1 TR001445.

Dr. Minen has financial interests successful nan app and its RELAXaHEAD underlying intelligence property, which has been licensed to CareTurner. These interests could use from nan result of this study and are managed according to nan policies of NYU Langone Health.