Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology
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Patients with chronic migraine are difficult to treat and often analgesic overusers. In this article attention is focused on aspects considered important for producing a definition of refractory in relation to this headache form. I propose that a "chronic migraine" patient should be considered "refractory" to pharmacological prophylaxis when adequate trials of preventive therapies at adequate doses have failed to reduce headache frequency and improve headache-related disability and, in patients with medication overuse, also failed to reduce the consumption of symptomatic drugs.
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Pharmacological prophylaxis of chronic migraine: a review of double-blind placebo-controlled trials.
Chronic migraine is an important public health problem. The aim of treatment should be to reduce migraine frequency and its negative impact on functioning, as well as to limit the use of acute medications. ⋯ The results of the review indicate that tizanidine, gabapentin, valproic acid, and particularly topiramate are effective prophylactics against chronic migraine, with improvements in several endpoints that were significantly superior to those achieved by placebo. However, the different results found by different trials, as well as several methodological problems inherent in the trials, suggest the need for further research to provide clear indications from large, multicentre, controlled trials with homogeneous inclusion criteria and adequate endpoints.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Frovatriptan versus zolmitriptan for the acute treatment of migraine: a double-blind, randomized, multicenter, Italian study.
The objective of this study is to assess patients' satisfaction with migraine treatment with frovatriptan (F) or zolmitriptan (Z), by preference questionnaire. 133 subjects with a history of migraine with or without aura (IHS criteria) were randomized to F 2.5 mg or Z 2.5 mg. The study had a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, cross-over design, with each of the two treatment periods lasting no more than 3 months. At the end of the study, patients were asked to assign preference to one of the treatments (primary endpoint). ⋯ SPF episodes were 18 (F) versus 22% (Z; p = NS). Drug-related adverse events were significantly (p < 0.05) less under F (3 vs. 10). In conclusion, our study suggests that F has a similar efficacy of Z, with some advantage as regards tolerability and recurrence.
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Drug refractory headaches constitute an important cause of social life disability; when a lack of responsiveness to conservative treatments is ascertained for these pathological conditions, surgical options are considered. Several lines of evidence exist to assert that the neuromodulation procedures available so far are safe and effective in a large amount of patients for the treatment of different types of severe primary and secondary headaches. Central (deep-brain stimulation, DBS) and peripheral [vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), occipital nerve stimulation (ONS), subcutaneous trigeminal stimulation] neuromodulation procedures are here reviewed as reported in literature along with the experience of our Institute.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Greater occipital nerve block in chronic migraine.
Headache syndromes often involve occipital and neck symptoms suggesting a functional connectivity between nociceptive trigeminal and cervical afferents. Several studies have suggested that pain relief in migraine and other types of headache can be achieved by local injections of steroids, local anaesthetics or a mixture of both in the area of greater occipital nerve (GON). Usually greater occipital nerve block (GONB) is performed by using local anaesthetics alone or with steroid. ⋯ Both treatments were full tolerated. In our study, adding triamcinolone to local anaesthetic when performing GONB and TPIs was not associated with improved outcome in the sample of patients with TM. In both groups, the procedure resulted in significant and rapid relief of headache, neck pain, photophobia and phonofobia.