Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2009 | Commentary
Is there an inherent limit to acute migraine treatment efficacy?
Authors:
Marcelo E. Bigal, Tony W. Ho
Published in:
The Journal of Headache and Pain
|
Issue 6/2009
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Excerpt
In the current issue of
Journal of Headache and Pain, Tfelt-Hansen [
1] suggests that calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonists (CGRP-RA) offer relief to only a fraction of patients. To support his hypothesis, he points out that only around two-thirds of migraineurs receiving intravenous (IV) olcegepant achieved pain relief in 2 h, and 46% of patients had pain relief in 1 h [
2], figures that are lower than previously reported values for subcutaneous sumatriptan [
3]. He also considers that the therapeutic gain for oral telcagepant 300 mg [
4,
5] was modest. He concludes by saying that “…there is most likely an inherent limit to the response one can expect from CGRP receptor antagonists, such as olcegepant and telcagepant, in the acute treatment of migraineurs as a group.” …
