[The efficacy of different anticonvulsants in chronic daily headache]

Efficacy of 4 medications--topiramate, valproate, gabapentine and carbamazepine--was studied in 180 patients: 84 with chronic migraine, 63 with chronic headache of tension and 33 with a combination of the above types of headache. Mean age of the patients was 40,4+/-11,7 (from 19 to 65 years), most patients were female (n=152). The treatment was conducted during 12 weeks with assessment of efficacy every 2 weeks and 4 weeks after the end of the treatment. The response was high for all anticonvulsants, with the highest efficacy in chronic migraine. Among antidepressants used topiramate proved to be most effective. The use of anticonvulsants allows the reduction of the dosage of analgetics as much as twice and the complete withdrawal of the latter in 20% of cases.