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Treatment of Acute Migraine Headaches Therapeutics Initiative (University of British Columbia)

Description

Therapeutics Letter 22 reviews the treatment of acute migraine headaches. Conclusions: Non-drug measures may be beneficial. When selecting therapy, first consider using agents to which the patient has previously responded. Oral agents should be tried first if they can be tolerated. The evidence does not support the use of oral ergot alkaloids. A number of NSAIDs are effective although no one NSAID has been shown to be superior. There is less evidence to support the use of acetaminophen. Oral narcotic combination products (e.g. acetaminophen/ASA + codeine) are effective. When narcotics are used alone or parenterally, morphine is the drug of choice. However, aside from meperidine there are few well-conducted trials of parenteral narcotics in acute migraine.

Item Metadata

Title
Treatment of Acute Migraine Headaches
Alternate Title
Therapeutics Letter 22
Creator
Therapeutics Initiative (University of British Columbia)
Date Issued
1997-12
Description
Therapeutics Letter 22 reviews the treatment of acute migraine headaches. Conclusions: Non-drug measures may be beneficial. When selecting therapy, first consider using agents to which the patient has previously responded. Oral agents should be tried first if they can be tolerated. The evidence does not support the use of oral ergot alkaloids. A number of NSAIDs are effective although no one NSAID has been shown to be superior. There is less evidence to support the use of acetaminophen. Oral narcotic combination products (e.g. acetaminophen/ASA + codeine) are effective. When narcotics are used alone or parenterally, morphine is the drug of choice. However, aside from meperidine there are few well-conducted trials of parenteral narcotics in acute migraine.
Subject
Acetaminophen; Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; Codeine; Ergot Alkaloids; Headache Disorders; Meperidine; Morphine; Migraine Disorders
Genre
Other
Type
Text
Language
eng
Notes
The UBC TI is funded by the BC Ministry of Health to provide evidence-based information about drug therapy. We neither formulate nor adjudicate provincial drug policies.
Date Available
2023-06-20
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0433601
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85011
Affiliation
Medicine, Faculty of; Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Department of
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty; Researcher
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International