Abstract
Acute migraine treatment is given to abolish ongoing attacks, while prophylactic migraine treatment is given on a daily basis to prevent the occurrence of migraine attacks as far as possible. The majority of migraine patients do not use the specific acute anti-migraine drugs, the triptans. Thus, only 10% (Denmark) to 35% (France) of migraine patients use triptans. This is most likely due to relatively low efficacy. Thus, in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) pain freedom after 2 hours ranges from 12% (frovatriptan 2.5¿mg) to 40% (rizatriptan 10¿mg). For prophylactic treatment (propranolol, valproate, topiramate) a response (at least a 50% reduction in migraine frequency) is observed in 40-50%. In addition, prophylactic treatment is hampered by adverse events and withdrawals. There is a need for new acute anti-migraine drugs and targets are already available and there are more to come. It has been estimated that approximately 2% of the adult population need prophylactic treatment because of frequent migraine attacks. For prophylactic migraine drugs there is an even greater need for new drugs than for acute drug treatment.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | C N S Drugs |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Pages (from-to) | 375-82 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| ISSN | 1172-7047 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |