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Migraine is common and can be associated with significant morbidity, and several treatment options exist for acute therapy.
Learn More >Introduction: Relative to migraine generally, chronic migraine (CM) imposes greater disability, healthcare utilization and socioeconomic burden. Six therapies currently possess a credible evidence base for prevention/suppression of CM. This review is intended to provide an assessment of their relative utility, defined as a blend of safety, tolerability and efficacy, focusing in particular on their safety and tolerability.
Learn More >Intravenous eptinezumab, an anti-calcitonin gene-related peptide antibody, is approved for migraine prevention in adults. It has established onset of preventive efficacy on day 1 after infusion.
Learn More >Placebo response is a powerful determinant of health outcomes in several disorders. Meta-analysis of clinical trials in pain conditions shows that it can contribute up to 75% of the overall treatment effect. Placebo response deriving from different routes of administration is poorly understood in primary headaches' pharmacological prevention. Thus, this meta-analysis aims to analyze how different routes of administration affect the placebo response in chronic migraine (CM). We conducted a meta-analysis with 7 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials, with 5672 patients older than 18 years who suffer from CM without associated comorbidities. We compared those who received a placebo-administered agent for the preventive treatment of CM subcutaneous, endovenous, or oral against those who received multiple head injections. The primary outcome was reduction in the number of days with migraine in the month assessed at 12, 16, and 24 weeks of treatment compared with baseline. Our study shows that placebo responses were greater when botulinum toxin was applied to the head, followed by intravenous injection of the anti-calcitonin gene-related peptide monoclonal antibody eptinezumab. Oral topiramate and subcutaneous monoclonal showed no difference, being inferior to head injection. Administration route affects placebo responses in CM preventive treatment. Elucidating the underlying mechanisms that mediate a placebo response in migraine treatment is beneficial to clinical practice and drug development, especially when comparing drugs with different routes of administration, with the effect of application to the head being superior to the other routes in this study. In our study the placebo response accounted for approximately 75% of the therapeutic gain in the treatment of CM.
Learn More >A genetic interaction of NRXN2 with GABRE, SYT1 and CASK in migraine patients: a case-control study.
Migraine is a multifactorial disorder that is more frequent (two to four times) in women than in men. In recent years, our research group has focused on the role of neurotransmitter release and its regulation. Neurexin (NRXN2) is one of the components of the synaptic vesicle machinery, responsible for connecting intracellular fusion proteins and synaptic vesicles. Our aim was to continue exploring the role and interaction of proteins involved in the control and promotion of neurotransmission in migraine susceptibility.
Learn More >To highlight the emerging understanding of oxytocin (OT) and oxytocin receptors (OTRs) in modulating menstrual-related migraine (MRM).
Learn More >To develop a dedicated Italian chronic migraine (CM) database (IRON project) to overcome disease misconceptions, improve clinical administration, reduce patients' burden, and rationalize economic resource allotment.
Learn More >Patients with refractory chronic migraine have substantial disability and have failed many acute and preventive medications. When aggressive intravenous therapy is indicated, both lidocaine and (R,S)-ketamine infusions have been used successfully to provide relief. Retrospective studies have shown that both agents may be associated with short-term analgesia. In this prospective, observational pilot study of 6 patients we compared the effects of lidocaine and (R,S)-ketamine infusions and performed metabolite analyses of (R,S)-ketamine to determine its metabolic profile in this population. One of (R,S)-ketamine's metabolites, (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine, has been shown in animal studies to reduce pain but human studies in patients undergoing continuous (R,S)-ketamine infusions for migraine are lacking. All 6 patients tolerated both infusions well with mild adverse effects. The baseline mean pain rating (0-10 numeric rating scale) decreased from 7.5 ± 2.2 to 4.7 ± 2.8 by end of lidocaine treatment (p?0.05) but increased to 7.0 ± 1.4 by the post-discharge visit at 4 weeks (p>0.05 versus baseline). The baseline mean pain rating prior to ketamine treatment was 7.4 ± 1.4, which decreased to 3.7 ± 2.3 by the end of the hospitalization (p?0.05), but increased to 7.2 ± 1.7 by the post-discharge visit at 6 weeks (p>0.05 versus baseline). For the primary outcome the change in pain from baseline to end of treatment was greater for ketamine than lidocaine (-3.7 versus -2.8, p?0.05) but this has minimal clinical significance. Ketamine metabolite analysis revealed that (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine was the predominant metabolite during most of the infusion, consistent with previous studies. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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