May 15, 2020
Kathleen Mullin
Bio:
Kathleen Mullin, M.D., is the Medical Director for Clinical Research at the New England Institute for Clinical Research and the Associate Medical Director at the New England Institute for Neurology and Headache (NEINH). Dr. Mullin is board-certified in neurology and headache medicine and after graduating from Tufts University and New York University School of Medicine, she completed her residency training at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, followed by a fellowship in Headache Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center.
Prior to joining NEINH, Dr. Mullin was the Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Montefiore. She was also Director of Clinical Trials, overseeing a busy clinical trials program. She has been a principle and a sub-investigator on numerous studies, with her work being published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national meetings.
Newer
migraine medications are designed to address a different arm of
the pain source than traditional triptan therapy, an approach not
usable by patients with vascular issues.
Dr. Mullin explains
Kathleen Mullin, MD, is the Medical Director of the New England Institute for Clinical Research (NEICR) in Stamford and specializes in headache medicine. A neurologist by training, she continued working in headache medicine after a fellowship following medical school and has never looked back. She is a clinician who also helps companies run migraine medication trails on her patient population and has found a very effective new medication that's now FDA approved: Nurtec™.
She explains how this works
differently than the common triptan line of medicines, which work
to decrease inflammation through vascular shrinking. However, any
patient with a vascular condition of any sort is not able to take
these medicines.
She explains how the
migraine medication Nurtec™ binds with CGRP receptors; GCRP is
a neuropeptide that we all have in our bodies.
Migraine sufferers have an increased amount of them and
blocking their ability to bind blocks their ability to cause
pain.
Therefore, medications that work this way are called CGRP
antagonists. She discusses the success patients have had with
this who haven't found relief with any other medication
She adds that headaches are wildly underdiagnosed and urges listeners to seek out medical help if they suffer from headaches. She says that if you ever had a headache that made you feel you had to cancel something, you probably had a migraine—so go to the doctor, she advises.
For more about Nurtec™, see https://www.nurtec.com/ .