[Profile of the migrainous patients according to drug intakes]

Migraine headache is a common, recurrent and often incapacitating disorder resulting in a substantial loss of work days and productivity, significant consumption of medicines, and considerable economic cost. We performed this study in order to determine the characteristic features of migrainous patients with regular or frequent intake of ergotamine preparations and non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and the existence of significant differences between both groups. 186 patients were included in the study, 36.6% suffering from migraine without aura and 63.4% from migraine with aura. 24.7% were males and 75.3% females. Mean age of the sample was 35.6 +/- 12.9 years. With regard to medication used for immediate relief of headache, 74.7% patients reported an intake of analgesics and 25.3% ergotamine preparations. In patients with analgesic intake the mean age was significantly lower than in patients with ergotamine for treatment of migraine. When clinic features of these two headache groups were examined, the duration of migraine attacks in the analgesic group was significantly higher (p = 0.0014) than in the ergotamine group, and the severity of migraine was lower (p < 0.05) than in this group. Among associated symptoms, nausea and vomiting were significantly less frequent (p = 0.024) in the analgesic group than in the group of patients with ergotamine intake.