MedWire News: For patients with migraines, taking a combination drug within 1 hour of the start of symptoms may help reduce or prevent headache pain and other symptoms, US researchers have found.
"Research suggests treating a migraine at the first sign of pain increases the likelihood of the best clinical outcome," explain Dr Stephen Silberstein, from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and team.
To investigate whether early treatment with a migraine-specific drug called a triptan, which helps prevent blood vessel constriction in the brain, combined with a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug can reduce the severity of migraine headaches, the team studied more than 1000 migraine patients aged between 18 and 65 years.
Half the participants received the combination drug within an hour of start of migraine symptoms while the pain was still mild, while the other half received a dummy medication.
The researchers found that 50% of patients taking the combined drug were free of headache pain 2 hours later, compared with just 16% of those taking the dummy medication.
Participants taking the combination drug were also significantly less likely to progress to moderate or severe pain over 4 hours than those taking the dummy medication.
Furthermore, the team found that patients taking the combined drug had significantly lower levels of traditional migraine-associated symptoms, such as nausea and sensitivity to light and sound, and non-traditional migraine-associated symptoms, such as neck pain/discomfort and sinus pain/pressure, than the other participants.
Writing in the journal Neurology, Dr Silberstein and team conclude that early combined treatment with a triptan and a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug "is an effective and well-tolerated therapy when administered during mild migraine pain within 1 hour of onset."
They add: "Physicians and patients should consider utilising both multi-mechanistic therapy and early intervention as an effective strategy for achieving the best clinical outcomes."