"Patients not responding adequately to their current triptan may achieve improved outcomes by switching to another triptan such as frovatriptan," said senior investigator Arnold R. Gammaitoni, PharmD, manager of medical affairs, Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

"In this study patients who switched to frovatriptan reported higher ratings of effectiveness and tolerability compared with their previous regimen," said Dr. Gammaitoni in a presentation on October 9^th.

Dr. Gammaitoni and colleagues conducted their study to determine whether patients who had been previously taking triptans had a preference for any specific agent within that class. They conducted a retrospective subanalysis of 2,437 patients who had previously been taking triptans other than frovatriptan for acute treatment of migraine. These patients had previously participated in a postmarketing observational study that had involved 7,107 German patients who had begun taking frovatriptan.

Patients were an average of 44.1 years old and 85.1% were women, a typical finding in migraine studies, according to the researcher. In this subset, 54.3% patients had at least 3 attacks per month, and a third of their attacks lasted more than 24 hours.

At baseline, 39% of patients rated their treatment effectiveness as good or very good; after the switch to frovatriptan, that rate increased to 84%. A rating of good to very good was given to the original triptan by 60%; after the switch, that rate increased to 93%.

Among those who had given their prior treatment an effectiveness score that was less than good, 85% gave a score of good or very good to frovatriptan. For patients who had given their baseline medication a tolerability rating of less than good, 98% rated frovatriptan's tolerability as good or very good.

The editors concluded that frovatriptan improved outcomes for patients who switched to this drug when they had been previously treated by another triptan.

Berlin-Chemie sponsored the study.


[Presentation title: Effectiveness and Safety of Frovatriptan in a Large Population Previously Taking Other Triptans for Acute Migraine Treatment: An Open-Label, German Postmarketing Surveillance Study. Abstract M-90]

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