Drug treatment of migraine: acute treatment and migraine prophylaxis.

Most current randomised controlled trials concern the acute treatment of migraine. Sumatriptan, a serotonin receptor agonist, was evaluated in 8 randomised controlled trials. Using a novel cartridge self-injector system subcutaneous sumatriptan was found superior to placebo, and oral sumatriptan in doses from 25 mg to 100 mg was found superior to placebo with no difference among doses. An oral dose of 100 mg sumatriptan was not superior to a combination of lysine acetylsalicylate plus metoclopramide, and 100 mg sumatriptan given 4 hrs after subcutaneous sumatriptan could not prevent recurrence of headache. Nasal dihydroergotamine was found to have some efficacy in acute migraine treatment, whereas nasal butorphanol, although effective in repeated doses, was hampered by many side effects. The prophylactic effect of valproate was confirmed in one randomised controlled trial.