Is nimodipine useful in migraine prophylaxis? Further considerations
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Updated: Nov 8, 2026

3D-Neuronavigation In Vivo Through a Patient's Brain During a Spontaneous Migraine Headache
Published on: June 2, 2014
M Leone1, F Frediani, G Patruno
1Headache Centre, C. Besta Neurological Institute, Milano, Italy.
Abstract:
Nimodipine is one of the most discussed calcium antagonists used in cerebrovascular diseases and, recently, in migraine prophylaxis. Its specificity in preventing cerebral arterial constriction has been invoked to explain nimodipine's efficacy in migraine. The discovery of neuronal receptors specific for dihydropyridines, however, favours a mechanism of action for nimodipine that is not exclusively vascular. This is in accordance with a view of migraine pathogenesis which implicates a primary neuronal event as the basis of the vascular changes observed in migraine patients.
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