Acute treatment of migraine with zolmitriptan 5 mg orally disintegrating tablet

To determine the speed of onset of headache response and duration of response with zolmitriptan 5 mg orally disintegrating tablet (ODT) in the acute treatment of migraine.

Rapid pain relief is important for migraine sufferers. The early efficacy (30 minutes) of the 5 mg dose of the zolmitriptan ODT formulation was evaluated.

In this double-blind, parallel-group trial, 670 patients were randomised to receive either zolmitriptan 5 mg ODT (n=329) or matching placebo (n=341) to treat two migraine headaches of moderate or severe intensity.

Zolmitriptan 5 mg ODT was significantly more effective than placebo in achieving a headache response (reduction in migraine headache intensity from moderate or severe to mild or no pain) at 30 minutes (16.5% vs 12.5%; p=0.048; primary endpoint), 1 hour (p <0.0001), and 2 hours (p <0.0001). Significantly more patients achieved a sustained headache response for 24 hours with zolmitriptan 5 mg ODT than with placebo (42.5% vs 16.4%; p <0.0001). Zolmitriptan 5 mg ODT also produced a higher pain-free rate than placebo at all timepoints (0.5, 1 and 2 hours post-dose), with the differences becoming significant at 1 hour. Adverse events were reported by 37.7% of the patients treated with zolmitriptan 5 mg ODT and 18.1% of the patients treated with placebo. Those that occurred most often for the patients treated with zolmitriptan 5 mg ODT were tightness (7.0%), dizziness (6.7%), somnolence (6.7%) and paraesthesias (6.1%).

A significant headache response as early as 30 minutes post-dose and good maintenance of this headache response at 24 hours makes zolmitriptan 5 mg ODT an excellent acute treatment for migraine. Together with the relatively low adverse event rate, these data demonstrate that zolmitriptan 5 mg ODT is a valuable therapy for migraine sufferers.