Doctors Testing New Migraine Treatment

(CBS)  Thirty million people suffer with the often debilitating pain of migraine headaches, and for many of them, the treatments that are currently available don't work. But now there's a possible breakthrough being tested. CBS' Pittsburgh station KDKA reports:

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Just turning on the lights can send 26-year-old Sarah Keiser into a painful episode: "It goes from my eye like a lightening bolt back through my head. It's very sharp and painful," said Keiser.

There are many common triggers for her migraine headaches, including food like peanuts and her favorite - chocolate.

"It was really hard when I discovered it was one of my triggers," Keiser told correspondent Stephanie Stahl.

When a migraine strikes, Keiser says even simple things like playing with her dogs or reading becomes impossible.

"I've tried everything, and nothing worked," said Keiser.

So Keiser turned to Dr. Stephen Silberstein at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital's Headache Center in Philadelphia, where they are testing a revolutionary migraine treatment that's orally inhaled.

"You take a deep breath, it activates and the material goes into the lungs and within 10 minutes, you get headache relief," said Dr. Silberstein.

The medication is dihydroergotamine, or DHE, which until now has only been available as an injection. The inhaled version is called Levadex, and the Jefferson study showed it works just as well.

"The drug gets rapidly absorbed into the lungs and into the bloodstream," said Dr. Silberstein.

That gets the medication into the brain and nerves to stop the pain, without causing any serious side effects.

"It worked really well," said Keiser. "This is a life saver; I can live my life."

Jefferson is now starting the final phase of testing for the inhaled migraine medication, so it will be a little while longer before it's available for general use.