[Sumatriptan in the treatment of migraine in general practice]

Abstract

Approximately 5% of the adult Norwegian population suffer from migraine. Sumatriptan is a new anti-migraine drug which has been shown in clinical studies to be efficacious in up to 80% of attacks treated. These early clinical studies have all been carried out at specialist centres and the present study was planned to see if migraine patients treated by general practitioners would also benefit from this new therapy. This placebo controlled, randomized, double blind study was carried out by 50 general practitioners and two neurologists, and included 294 patients. A total of 1,485 migraine attacks were treated. The results show that Sumatriptan is equally efficacious and well tolerated when used to treat patients in general practice as at specialist clinics. Sumatriptan was efficacious in relieving pain and other migraine symptoms in 76% of the migraine attacks treated, while placebo had the desired effect in 29% of attacks.