Current perspectives on effective migraine treatments: are small clinical differences important for patients?

The introduction of 5-HT(1B/1D) agonists, i.e. triptans, the first drugs specifically developed for the treatment of acute migraine, has revolutionized the treatment of migraine attacks. Triptans have met the needs of many migraine patients, however given the lack of direct comparative trials including all triptans, a meta-analysis of results with all available triptans needed to be conducted. Similar clinical trial design, patient population characteristics and main endpoints certainly facilitated the performance of this meta-analysis. Results from 53 randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trials on acute triptan therapy in 24,089 patients were compared with respect to the main efficacy and tolerability variables. At recommended doses, almotriptan 12.5 mg, eletriptan 80 mg and rizatriptan 10 mg provided the highest likelihood of consistent success.