Soon, pill to beat migraine!

Washington - A pill to prevent migraine headaches could soon be on the horizon, now that a gene linked to the condition has been discovered.

So far, there is no therapy that prevents an attack.

"We may be moving toward developing about a pill that would block the brain's pain channel that reacts to stimulation and causes pain in migraine," says Dr. Guy A. Rouleau director of the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center and Full Professor in the Department of Medicine of the Université de Montréal.

"Sequencing the gene not only allows us to understand the disease – it also opens understanding of the pain pathways that trigger migraine pain," he said.

Dr Allan Purdy, from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, said the discovery of the gene confirmed the long-standing belief that migraine runs in some families.

The study was presented at the annual scientific meeting of the American Headache Society.