Key Takeaways

• Suzetrigine (brand name Journavx) is a non-opioid pain medication FDA-approved in January 2025 for moderate to severe acute pain.
• A 2026 study from UCLA's Goldberg Migraine Program found that 67.5% of people with refractory headache disorders reported improvement with suzetrigine — even after other treatments had failed.
• Suzetrigine works differently from triptans, gepants, and CGRP therapies. It targets a specific sodium channel called NaV1.8 in peripheral sensory neurons.
• The drug was generally well tolerated. Mild side effects — including itching, lightheadedness, and constipation — were reported in about 19% of patients.
• This is early research. Suzetrigine is not yet FDA-approved for migraine or headache disorders. If you're curious whether it might be right for you, talk with a headache specialist.

If you've tried multiple migraine treatments without finding enough relief, you're not alone. Roughly 40% of people with migraine don't get adequate benefit from the treatments available today.[1] That's a sobering number — and it's exactly why researchers keep looking for new approaches.

A study published in June 2026 in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain offers one of the most compelling early looks at a new option: suzetrigine, a drug approved for acute pain that may have real potential for people living with migraine and other headache disorders.[2]

We're proud to share that Angel Moreno, DNP, a headache nurse practitioner at Haven Headache & Migraine Center, was a co-author on this research. Angel's participation reflects the kind of care Haven is built on — providers who don't just treat patients in the clinic, but who actively contribute to advancing the science of headache medicine.

Here's what the research found, what it means for people with migraine, and what we still don't know.

What Is Suzetrigine?

Suzetrigine (sold under the brand name Journavx) is a selective blocker of a sodium channel called NaV1.8. The FDA approved it in January 2025 for treating moderate to severe acute pain in adults — making it the first new non-opioid analgesic class approved in over two decades.[3]

That last part matters. Most acute pain medications either work on opioid receptors (with known risks of dependence and side effects) or block inflammation broadly (like NSAIDs). Suzetrigine does neither.

Instead, it targets NaV1.8 channels that are found primarily in peripheral sensory neurons — the nerve cells that carry pain signals toward the brain.[4] Because NaV1.8 is concentrated in those peripheral neurons and not in the heart or central nervous system, suzetrigine can reduce pain signaling without the cardiac or cognitive risks tied to older, less selective sodium channel blockers like lidocaine.[2]

That selectivity is what makes it interesting to headache specialists.

Why Sodium Channels Matter in Migraine

You may have heard of CGRP — the protein that plays a central role in migraine attacks. Treatments targeting CGRP (including gepants and CGRP monoclonal antibodies) have been transformative for many people with migraine over the last several years.

But sodium channels are a different part of the story.

We've known for a long time that sodium channel activity is involved in pain. Intravenous lidocaine — a sodium channel blocker — has been used to treat refractory headache disorders for decades, with some success. Other medications that happen to block sodium channels, like topiramate and lamotrigine, also have evidence in headache care.[2]

The problem is that none of these therapies target sodium channels selectively. They affect channels throughout the nervous system, which limits how much you can give someone before side effects become the bigger problem.

Suzetrigine changes that calculation. Because it targets NaV1.8 specifically — and NaV1.8 is expressed in trigeminal ganglion neurons, the very cells that relay pain signals during migraine attacks[5] — researchers saw reason to look more closely.

What the UCLA Study Found

The research team at UCLA's Goldberg Migraine Program, led by Dr. Molly Fensterwald and Dr. Sinifunanya Nwaobi, reviewed 80 patients treated with suzetrigine for headache and facial pain disorders between December 2024 and February 2026.[2] The team included Angel Moreno, DNP, a headache nurse practitioner at Haven Headache & Migraine Center, whose clinical expertise contributed to the investigation and data review.

These weren't people trying their first or second treatment. Every patient in the study had already tried standard therapies — and either hadn't responded well or couldn't tolerate them.

What the researchers found:

• 67.5% of patients reported improvement on the Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC) scale.
• Only 6.3% reported worsening.
• The highest improvement rates (83.3%) were seen in people with trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias — a group of headache disorders that includes cluster headache and are notoriously difficult to treat.
• People with medication-overuse headache had the lowest improvement rates (40%), though even this is notable. Suzetrigine has a completely different mechanism than the triptans, opioids, and barbiturates that most often cause medication overuse — so it may be useful as a bridge therapy to help people reduce overuse without adding another overuse risk.
• Diagnoses treated included chronic migraine, medication-overuse headache, occipital neuralgia, nummular headache, persistent idiopathic facial pain, and secondary headache — a wide range.

Mild side effects were reported in 15 of the 80 patients and included itching, lightheadedness, and constipation. No serious adverse events were recorded.

Three Cases That Stand Out

The researchers highlighted three patients whose experiences give texture to the numbers.

A woman with hemicrania continua — a rare, continuous, one-sided headache disorder — had tried more than a dozen treatments without adequate relief. After adding suzetrigine, she reported meaningful pain reduction and described what it did for her quality of life in her own words: the improved pain control had done wonders for her morale.[2]

A woman with medication-overuse headache had been taking rizatriptan daily along with caffeine and combination analgesics, all without lasting relief. Suzetrigine was used as a short-term bridge while she tapered off the overused medications. Within three days, she reported no headaches.[2]

A 76-year-old man with hypnic headache — a rare disorder where headache attacks wake people from sleep, usually in older adults — had multiple medical conditions that ruled out several standard treatment options. A two-week course of suzetrigine led to roughly 80% improvement in headache severity and allowed him to sleep through the night again.[2]

These are small snapshots. But they matter because they show suzetrigine working across very different types of headache disorders, in patients with complex medical histories, and in conditions where few good options currently exist.

What This Research Doesn't Tell Us

The UCLA team is clear about the limits of their work, and that honesty is important.

This was a retrospective case series — not a randomized controlled trial. There was no placebo group. The sample size was small. The study couldn't tell us whether suzetrigine works better or worse than other options, only that it helped many people who had run out of those options.

We also don't yet know:

• The right dose and duration for headache treatment specifically
• Whether the benefits hold up over months or years
• How suzetrigine compares head-to-head with CGRP therapies, triptans, or other acute treatments
• Whether there are groups of people with migraine who are more or less likely to respond

A clinical trial of suzetrigine for diabetic peripheral neuropathy is currently underway, which should provide useful long-term safety and tolerability data.[2] But dedicated trials in migraine and headache disorders haven't started yet.

The researchers call suzetrigine a "promising new therapeutic approach that warrants further study." That's the right framing — hopeful, grounded, and honest.

What This Means If You Have Migraine

Suzetrigine is not currently FDA-approved for migraine or headache disorders, and prescribing it for these conditions would be considered off-label use. That's not unusual in headache medicine — many effective treatments were used off-label before formal approvals caught up with clinical experience.

What this study tells us is that a new mechanism is now available, it's been used in real patients with difficult-to-treat headache disorders, and a meaningful percentage of those patients improved.

If you've tried multiple treatments without finding adequate relief — whether that's triptans, gepants, CGRP antibodies, Botox, nerve blocks, or preventive medications — this is worth knowing about and worth discussing with a headache specialist who follows the research closely.

You deserve a provider who keeps up with what's new, thinks carefully about your full medical history, and helps you weigh options honestly — not one who shrugs and sends you home with the same prescription you've already tried.

If you'd like to talk with one of our specialists at Haven Headache & Migraine Center, we're here. Book a consultation today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is suzetrigine used for?Suzetrigine (Journavx) is FDA-approved for the treatment of moderate to severe acute pain in adults. Researchers are studying it for other conditions, including headache disorders, though it is not yet approved for those uses.

How does suzetrigine work differently from triptans or gepants?Triptans work on serotonin receptors and gepants block CGRP receptors. Suzetrigine takes a completely different approach: it selectively blocks NaV1.8 sodium channels in peripheral sensory neurons, reducing the transmission of pain signals rather than targeting migraine-specific proteins.

Is suzetrigine safe for people with heart conditions?Because suzetrigine targets NaV1.8 channels found in peripheral neurons rather than cardiac sodium channels, it does not appear to affect heart function — unlike older, less selective sodium channel blockers. That said, anyone with a cardiac history should discuss any new medication with their care team.

Can suzetrigine help with medication-overuse headache?Early data suggests it may be useful as a bridge therapy to help people reduce medication overuse, because its mechanism is completely different from opioids, triptans, and barbiturates — the drugs most commonly associated with medication-overuse headache. Larger studies are needed to confirm this.

Is suzetrigine a controlled substance?No. Suzetrigine is a non-opioid and is not a controlled substance. It does not carry the addiction risk associated with opioid pain medications.

Where can I get suzetrigine for migraine?Suzetrigine is not FDA-approved for migraine. Using it for headache disorders would be off-label, and a prescription would require a physician who is aware of the current evidence and your individual history. A headache specialist is best positioned to make that evaluation.

Who are the best candidates for suzetrigine?Based on current evidence, people who may benefit most are those with refractory headache disorders — meaning they haven't responded adequately to standard treatments. The UCLA study included patients with chronic migraine, trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias, medication-overuse headache, and facial pain conditions.

References

1. Buse DC, Lipton RB. Global perspectives on the burden of episodic and chronic migraine. Cephalalgia. 2013;33(11):885–890. https://doi.org/10.1177/0333102413477736
2. Fensterwald M, Johnson J, Moreno A, et al. Suzetrigine as a novel treatment for headache disorders: A case series. Headache. 2026;00:1–6. https://doi.org/10.1111/head.70147
3. Rajasingham R, Qi Y. Suzetrigine, a non-opioid small-molecule analgesic: mechanism of action, clinical, and translational science. Clin Transl Sci. 2025;18(11):e70414. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12624754/
4. Bertoch T, D'Aunno D, McCoun J, et al. Suzetrigine, a nonopioid NaV1.8 inhibitor for treatment of moderate-to-severe acute pain: two phase 3 randomized clinical trials. Anesthesiology. 2025;142(6):1085–1099.
5. Djouhri L, Fang X, Okuse K, Wood JN, Berry CM, Lawson SN. The TTX-resistant sodium channel Nav1.8 (SNS/PN3): expression and correlation with membrane properties in rat nociceptive primary afferent neurons. J Physiol. 2003;550(Pt 3):739–752. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2003.042127

This content is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the guidance of your physician or a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Haven Headache & Migraine Center does not endorse any specific treatment, test, physician, product, or procedure mentioned in this article.

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