Intranasal Cooling for Symptomatic Relief of Migraine

This study will be a randomised placebo controlled trial examining the effectiveness of using an intranasal cooling device (the RhinoChill) in providing relief of pain and symptoms of acute migraine. It will involve using two nasal catheters to cool the nasal cavity which provides localised cooling of the local nasal tissue and the blood vessels which supply blood to the brain. This cooling effect will cause the blood vessels to constrict as well as stimulating special cold receptors that are thought to be involved in the relief of migraine, thereby providing both pain and associated symptomatic relief. Ninety patients will be randomised in a 1:1 fashion, clustered to three different recruitment sites. The patients will have a 30 day period of data collection for their current migraine frequency, treatment and response to medication (with a minimum of 2 migraine attacks recorded) before starting the treatment phase with the RhinoChill Device. Treatment will be for 2 migraine attacks. Only a single treatment is allowed for the first attack, but on the second attack the patient may deliver 2 treatments with a gap of at least 2 hours between treatments.