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| |  DG DISPATCH - HEADACHE: Naratriptan Useful For Non-Severe Migraines By Cameron Johnston Special to DG News BARCELONA, SPAIN -- June 29, 1999 -- Glaxo Wellcome researchers report that its latest anti-migraine medication, naratriptan (marketed as Amerge in the United States and Naramig in the United Kingdom) is useful for treating non-severe migraine headaches. At the ninth congress of the International Headache Society, which wrapped up in Barcelona over the weekend, it was reported that naratriptan was effective in relieving the pain of non-severe migraines (headaches that rated mild on the International Headache Society’s scale for headache severity). The Glaxo researchers found that naratriptan was as effective in treating a moderate headache (as defined by two-hour pain relief) as sumatriptan, but less effective at treating a severe attack at two hours post-dose. It was less effective at four hours post-dose for treating both moderate and severe attacks. The research further observed that 63 percent of the naratriptan group reported 24 hour overall efficacy compared with 58 percent in the 100 mg suatriptan group. The efficacy of both drugs was more or less the same -- 46 percent versus 47 percent, respective -- when the headache was severe. The number of patients experiencing adverse side effects was also lower in the naratriptan group. In another arm of the same study, naratriptan was found to be useful in treating prodrome headache -- the warning signs that a person is about to experience a migraine. Researchers said that most migraineurs will experience warning signs that they are about to have an attack. Those signs include irritability, nausea, muscle tenderness, loss of energy and a change in mood. In virtually all cases, these warning signs will result in a migraine headache. Among a group of migraineurs who took naratriptan 2.5 mg as soon as they felt any of the prodromal signs coming on, 60 percent reported that the headache was aborted or did not occur. The 33 patients involved in the study -- only 20 completed it -- took the medication when they felt three prodromal attacks. Half of the patients reported their headache severity at baseline as being moderate, 44 percent described their attacks as severe and just five percent were mild. The study was conducted at Glaxo’s research facility in Triangle Park, N.C., and in Greenford, Middlesex.
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