Botox for Migraine

CDH offers botox treatment for prevention of chronic migraine, with injections provided once/month. We use the protocol approved by the FDA. There is reasonable evidence that this protocol is helpful.

As of 2/2012, our experience so far has been that 62% of patients who have failed every other treatment, respond to Botox. The average age of our patients is 50, and most have been perimenopausal women. It may be that due to the high prevalence of migraine around menopause, our results are especially good due to selection bias (i.e. our patients are well selected).

Botox treatment is expensive due to the high cost of botulinum toxin (sold by Allergan). The cost of drug alone for a standard treatment is about $1000. Then there is also the cost of doctor's time, office overhead etc.

Some insurances cover Botox for chronic migraine, and we will atempt to "precertify" persons in this situation. Medicare does not fully cover the standard Botox protocol for migraine, as there are two locations for injection (basically front and back).