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Frovatriptan Effective, Well Tolerated in Previous NSAID and Triptan Users: Presented at IHS/AHS

By Liz Meszaros

PHILADELPHIA -- September 14, 2009 -- Frovatriptan may be an effective alternative in patients with migraine who respond poorly to treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) or another triptan, according to an analysis presented here on September 12 at the 14th Congress of the International Headache Society & the 51st Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Headache Society (IHS/AHS).

For this subgroup analysis of 2 open-label, postmarketing, surveillance studies of frovatriptan conducted at multiple sites in Germany from July to December 2003 and June to December 2004, researchers included patients with migraine being treated by a primary care physician who had been prescribed frovatriptan 2.5 mg to treat a single migraine attack.

Of the 16,737 eligible patients, 8,353 had previously used NSAIDs and 1,848 had previously used triptans. After switching to frovatriptan, 70.5% of patients in both groups required 1 or less doses of frovatriptan to treat an attack.

Patients who had previously used NSAIDs were more likely to treat migraine with a single dose of frovatriptan than previous triptan users (71.9% vs 63.9%; P < .001). However, previous triptan users also reported more frequent and severe headaches than previous NSAID users at baseline, which suggests that they were more difficult to treat.

Mean time to onset of treatment effect was shorter with frovatriptan in NSAID users as well (46.3 vs 52.9 minutes; P < .001), although the researchers noted that this difference was only approximately 5 minutes.

Both NSAID and triptan users had shorter headache duration with frovatriptan (P < .001 vs baseline for both). In addition, 24-hour recurrence rates were low, and 77.3% of patients had no recurrence. The majority of patients rated frovatriptan more effective and better tolerated (91.1% and 72.4%, respectively) than previous NSAID or triptan therapy, as did the majority of physicians (91.8% and 76.2%).

"Migraineurs who do not respond to or tolerate NSAIDs or other triptans may have improved outcomes with frovatriptan," noted John Campbell, Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. "Patients and physicians both rated frovatriptan as more effective and better tolerated than previous NSAID or triptan therapy."

Funding for this study was provided by The Menarini Group, Berlin-Chemie AG, Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Menarini.

[Presentation title: Frovatriptan Effectiveness and Tolerability in More Than 10,000 Patients Previously Using Other Triptans or Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs. Abstract PO27]

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