Symptomatic and prophylactic treatment of migraine: a critical reappraisal

The pharmacologic management of migraine has traditionally focused on two approaches: symptomatic treatment and prophylactic therapy. The objective of symptomatic treatment is to reduce the intensity and duration of pain with its attendant symptoms and to optimize the patient's ability to function normally. The efficacy of most abortive antimigrainous drugs in probably related to their inhibitory effects on neurogenic inflammation mediated through serotoninergic control mechanisms. A variety of treatment strategies provide effective treatment for most attacks of moderate to severe migraine when utilizing one or a combination of the following classes of drugs: simple analgesics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antiemetics, narcotic analgesics, ergot derivatives, and serotonin1-agonists. The choice of medication for an acute attack depends on factors such as the severity of the attack, the presence or absence of vomiting, time from onset of pain to peak pain level, rate of bioavailability of the drug, comorbid medical conditions, and the side effect profile of the drug. The major objective of prophylactic therapy is the reduction of frequency, duration, and intensity of attacks. Beta-blocking drugs without intrinsic sympathomimetic activity (such as propranolol), amitriptyline, flunarizine, serotonin antagonists (such as methysergide) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (such as naproxen) are the five main classes of drugs or agents that may be used as prophylactics.