TREATMENT: Migraine Headache
Once a diagnosis of migraine has been established, it is important to assess the extent of a patient’s disease and disability. The Migraine Disability Assessment Score (MIDAS) is a well-validated, easy-to-use tool (Fig. 34-4).
Patient education is an important aspect of migraine management. Information for patients is available at sites such as www.achenet.org, the website of the American Council for Headache Education (ACHE). It is helpful for patients to understand that migraine is an inherited tendency to headache; that migraine can be modified and controlled by lifestyle adjustments and medications, but it cannot be eradicated; and that, except in some occasions in women on oral estrogens or contraceptives, migraine is not associated with serious or life-threatening illnesses.
NONPHARMACOLOGIC MANAGEMENT Migraine can often be managed to some degree by a variety of nonpharmacologic approaches. Most patients benefit by the identification and avoidance of specific headache triggers. A regulated lifestyle is helpful, including a healthy diet, regular exercise, regular sleep patterns, avoidance of excess caffeine and alcohol, and avoidance of acute changes in stress levels, being particularly wary of the let-down effect.
The measures that benefit a given individual should be used routinely because they provide a simple, cost-effective approach to migraine management. Patients with migraine do not encounter more stress than headache-free individuals; over-responsiveness to changes in stress appears to be the issue. Because the stresses of everyday living cannot be eliminated, lessening one’s response to stress by various techniques is helpful for many patients. These may include yoga, transcendental meditation, hypnosis, and conditioning techniques such as biofeedback. For most patients, this approach is, at best, an adjunct to pharmacotherapy. Nonpharmacologic measures are unlikely to prevent all migraine attacks. If these measures fail to prevent an attack, pharmacologic approaches are then needed to abort an attack.
ACUTE ATTACK THERAPIES FOR MIGRAINE The mainstay of pharmacologic therapy is the judicious use of one or more of the many medicines that are effective in migraine (Table 34-4). The selection of the optimal regimen for a given patient depends on a number of factors, the most important of which is the severity of the attack. Mild migraine attacks can usually be managed by oral agents; the average efficacy rate is 50–70%. Severe migraine attacks may require parenteral therapy. Most drugs effective in the treatment of migraine are members of one of three major pharmacologic classes: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, 5-HT1B/1D receptor agonists, and dopamine receptor antagonists.
In general, an adequate dose of whichever agent is chosen should be used as soon as possible after the onset of an attack. If additional medication is required within 60 min because symptoms return or have not abated, the initial dose should be increased for subsequent attacks or a different class of drug tried as first-line treatment. Migraine therapy must be individualized; a standard approach for all patients is not possible. A therapeutic regimen may need to be constantly refined until one is identified that provides the patient with rapid, complete, and consistent relief with minimal side effects (Table 34-5).
NONSTEROIDAL ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DRUGS (NSAIDs) Both the severity and duration of a migraine attack can be reduced significantly by NSAIDs (Table 34-4). Indeed, many undiagnosed migraineurs self-treat with nonprescription NSAIDs. A general consensus is that NSAIDs are most effective when taken early in the migraine attack. However, the effectiveness of these agents in migraine is usually less than optimal in moderate or severe migraine attacks. The combination of acetaminophen, aspirin, and caffeine has been approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of mild to moderate migraine. The combination of aspirin and metoclopramide has been shown to be comparable to a single dose of oral sumatriptan. Important side effects of NSAIDs include dyspepsia and gastrointestinal irritation.
5-HT1B/1D RECEPTOR AGONISTS ORAL Stimulation of 5-HT1B/1D receptors can stop an acute migraine attack. Ergotamine and dihydroergotamine are nonselective receptor agonists, whereas the triptans are selective 5-HT1B/1D receptor agonists. A variety of triptans, 5-HT1B/1D receptor agonists—sumatriptan, almotriptan, eletriptan, frovatriptan, naratriptan, rizatriptan, and zolmitriptan—are now available for the treatment of migraine.
Each drug in the triptan class has similar pharmacologic properties but varies slightly in terms of clinical efficacy. Rizatriptan and eletriptan are the most efficacious of the triptans currently available in the United States. Sumatriptan and zolmitriptan have similar rates of efficacy as well as time to onset, with an advantage of having multiple formulations, whereas almotriptan has a similar rate of efficacy to sumatriptan and is better tolerated, and frovatriptan and naratriptan are somewhat slower in onset and are better tolerated. Clinical efficacy appears to be related more to the tmax (time to peak plasma level) than to the potency, half-life, or bioavailability. This observation is consistent with a large body of data indicating that faster-acting analgesics are more effective than slower-acting agents.
Unfortunately, monotherapy with a selective oral 5-HT1B/1D receptor agonist does not result in rapid, consistent, and complete relief of migraine in all patients. Triptans are generally not effective in migraine with aura unless given after the aura is completed and the headache initiated. Side effects are common, although often mild and transient. Moreover, 5-HT1B/1D receptor agonists are contraindicated in individuals with a history of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease. Recurrence of headache, within usual time course of an attack, is another important limitation of triptan use and occurs at least occasionally in most patients. Evidence from randomized controlled trials show that coadministration of a longer-acting NSAID, naproxen 500 mg, with sumatriptan will augment the initial effect of sumatriptan and, importantly, reduce rates of headache recurrence.
Ergotamine preparations offer a nonselective means of stimulating 5-HT1 receptors. A nonnauseating dose of ergotamine should be sought because a dose that provokes nausea is too high and may intensify head pain. Except for a sublingual formulation of ergotamine, oral formulations of ergotamine also contain 100 mg caffeine (theoretically to enhance ergotamine absorption and possibly to add additional analgesic activity). The average oral ergotamine dose for a migraine attack is 2 mg. Because the clinical studies demonstrating the efficacy of ergotamine in migraine predated the clinical trial methodologies used with the triptans, it is difficult to assess the clinical efficacy of ergotamine versus the triptans. In general, ergotamine appears to have a much higher incidence of nausea than triptans but less headache recurrence.
NASAL Nasal formulations of dihydroergotamine (Migranal), zolmitriptan (Zomig nasal), or sumatriptan can be useful in patients requiring a nonoral route of administration. The nasal sprays result in substantial blood levels within 30–60 min. Although in theory nasal sprays might provide faster and more effective relief of a migraine attack than oral formulations, their reported efficacy is only approximately 50–60%. Studies with a new inhalational formulation of dihydroergotamine indicate that its absorption problems can be overcome to produce rapid onset of action with good tolerability.
PARENTERAL Administration of drugs by injection, such as dihydroergotamine and sumatriptan, is approved by the FDA for the rapid relief of a migraine attack. Peak plasma levels of dihydroergotamine are achieved 3 min after IV dosing, 30 min after IM dosing, and 45 min after SC dosing. If an attack has not already peaked, SC or IM administration of 1 mg of dihydroergotamine suffices for about 80–90% of patients. Sumatriptan, 4–6 mg SC, is effective in ~50–80% of patients, and can now be administered by a needle-free device.
DOPAMINE RECEPTOR ANTAGONISTS ORAL Oral dopamine receptor antagonists can be considered as adjunctive therapy in migraine. Drug absorption is impaired during migraine because of reduced gastrointestinal motility. Delayed absorption occurs even in the absence of nausea and is related to the severity of the attack and not its duration. Therefore, when oral NSAIDs and/or triptan agents fail, the addition of a dopamine receptor antagonist, such as metoclopramide 10 mg or domperidone 10 mg (not available in the United States), should be considered to enhance gastric absorption. In addition, dopamine receptor antagonists decrease nausea/vomiting and restore normal gastric motility.
PARENTERAL Dopamine receptor antagonists (e.g., chlorpromazine, prochlorperazine, metoclopramide) by injection can also provide significant acute relief of migraine; they can be used in combination with parenteral 5-HT1B/1D receptor agonists. A common IV protocol used for the treatment of severe migraine is the administration over 2 min of a mixture of 5 mg of prochlorperazine and 0.5 mg of dihydroergotamine.
OTHER MEDICATIONS FOR ACUTE MIGRAINE ORAL The combination of acetaminophen, dichloralphenazone, and isometheptene, one to two capsules, has been classified by the FDA as “possibly” effective in the treatment of migraine. Because the clinical studies demonstrating the efficacy of this combination analgesic in migraine predated the clinical trial methodologies used with the triptans, it is difficult to compare the efficacy of this sympathomimetic compound to other agents.
NASAL A nasal preparation of butorphanol is available for the treatment of acute pain. As with all opioids, the use of nasal butorphanol has little role in migraine treatment.
PARENTERAL Opioids are modestly effective in the acute treatment of migraine. For example, IV meperidine (50–100 mg) is given frequently in the emergency room. This regimen “works” in the sense that the pain of migraine is eliminated. However, this regimen is clearly suboptimal for patients with recurrent headache. Opioids do not treat the underlying headache mechanism; rather, they act to alter the pain sensation, and there is evidence their use may decrease the likelihood of a response to triptans in the future. Moreover, in patients taking oral opioids, such as oxycodone or hydrocodone, habituation or addiction can greatly confuse the treatment of migraine. Opioid craving and/or withdrawal can aggravate and accentuate migraine. Therefore, it is recommended that opioid use in migraine be limited to patients with severe, but infrequent, headaches that are unresponsive to other pharmacologic approaches or who have contraindications to other therapies.
MEDICATION-OVERUSE HEADACHE Acute attack medications, particularly opioid or barbiturate-containing compound analgesics, have a propensity to aggravate headache frequency and induce a state of refractory daily or near-daily headache called medication-overuse headache. This condition is likely not a separate headache entity but a reaction of the migraine patient to a particular medicine. Migraine patients who have two or more headache days a week should be cautioned about frequent analgesic use (see “Chronic Daily Headache” in Chap. 9).
PREVENTIVE TREATMENTS FOR MIGRAINE Patients with an increasing frequency of migraine attacks or with attacks that are either unresponsive or poorly responsive to abortive treatments are good candidates for preventive agents. In general, a preventive medication should be considered in the subset of patients with four or more attacks a month. Significant side effects are associated with the use of many of these agents; furthermore, determination of dose can be difficult because the recommended doses have been derived for conditions other than migraine. The mechanism of action of these drugs is unclear; it seems likely that the brain sensitivity that underlies migraine is modified. Patients are usually started on a low dose of a chosen treatment; the dose is then gradually increased, up to a reasonable maximum, to achieve clinical benefit.
Drugs that have the capacity to stabilize migraine are listed in Table 34-6. Drugs must be taken daily, and there is usually a lag of between 2 to 12 weeks before an effect is seen. The drugs that have been approved by the FDA for the prophylactic treatment of migraine include propranolol, timolol, sodium valproate, topiramate, and methysergide (not available). In addition, a number of other drugs appear to display prophylactic efficacy. This group includes amitriptyline, nortriptyline, flunarizine, phenelzine, gabapentin, and cyproheptadine. Placebo-controlled trials of onabotulinum toxin type A in episodic migraine were negative, whereas, overall, placebo-controlled trials in chronic migraine were positive. Phenelzine and methysergide are usually reserved for recalcitrant cases because of their serious potential side effects. Phenelzine is a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI); therefore, tyramine-containing foods, decongestants, and meperidine are contraindicated. Methysergide may cause retroperitoneal or cardiac valvular fibrosis when it is used for >6 months, and thus monitoring is required for patients using this drug; the risk of fibrosis is about 1:1500 and is likely to reverse after the drug is stopped.
The probability of success with any one of the antimigraine drugs is 50–75%. Many patients are managed adequately with low-dose amitriptyline, propranolol, candesartan, topiramate, or valproate. If these agents fail or lead to unacceptable side effects, second-line agents such as methysergide or phenelzine can be used. Once effective stabilization is achieved, the drug is continued for ~6 months and then slowly tapered to assess the continued need. Many patients are able to discontinue medication and experience fewer and milder attacks for long periods, suggesting that these drugs may alter the natural history of migraine.