If you get horrible migraines that basically bring your life to a halt, there's a method of treatment you might not have considered.

Botox! The drug most commonly used to treat wrinkles is being used to reduce the occurrence of migraine attacks.

Treatment is being administered right here in Springfield. at The Headache Care Center.

While Botox is approved to treat a variety of disorders it is not yet approved for migraines, that's why a number of studies are looking at it's effects and so far some doctors say the results are promising.

Sheila McMillan knows what it's like to suffer through with pain and severe migraines. "Most of the time when I would have them I would go into the bedroom a cold dark quite place, no movement no family just complete withdraw," says McMillan.

But now she doesn't have to hide, that's because an unlikely treatment presented itself.

For the last 3 years doctors have treated McMillan's headaches with Botox injections. "I couldn't believe it was working," says McMillan.

A study done at the Headache Care Center, which was recently published, found that patients who were unsuccessful with more traditional treatments were given back their quality of life, with Botox.

"What we found is that there was a decrease in the frequency of headaches not all the months, but for some of the months," says Dr. Roger Cady, Director of the Headache Care Center.

Patients like McMillan get multiple injections at specific points in their forehead, neck and other muscles.

Doctors say the results typically last 3 to 4 months, unlike other medications taken on a daily basis.

"Taking drugs sometimes have adverse effects and again there is a lot of issue around compliance the ability to remember to take that drug, so in that sense Botox has a lot of promise," says Cady.

Promise which comes with a price. Since the FDA hasn't approved Botox for treatment of Migraines insurance won't cover it for most patients and each session of injection costs about $1,000.

But for Sheila McMillan her outcome far outweighs the cost. " Because I have a life now when your withdrawing from social events family events church events because your in so much pain and then you get a relief you can actually participate, it's worth it," says McMillan.

McMillan says she does some mission work in third world countries and couldn't go until she started getting better.

Dr. Cady says while his study was recently published in a medical journal another major study is going on right now and its results should go to the FDA in hopes of getting this treatment approved.

For more information log-on to www.headachecare.com