Epidemiology, risk factors, and treatment of chronic migraine: A focus on topiramate

Stephen Silberstein, Hans Christoph Diener, Richard Lipton, Peter Goadsby, David Dodick, Genaro Bussone, Fred Freitag, Susan Schwalen, Steven Ascher, Jacqueline Morein, Steven Greenberg, David Biondi, Joseph Hulihan

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

The term chronic daily headache refers to a heterogeneous group of headache disorders characterized by a frequency of headaches on ≥15 days per month. Chronic migraine is a subtype of chronic daily headache. The prevalence of chronic migraine is ∼1%. Baseline attack frequency and acute medication overuse have been identified as potential risk factors for the progression of migraine from an episodic disorder to a chronic condition. There is an unmet patient need for effective and safe treatments for patients with chronic migraine, but data from rigorous controlled trials are limited. Previous studies have demonstrated that topiramate is an effective and safe preventive treatment for episodic migraine. In addition, pilot studies have suggested the utility of topiramate for the prevention of chronic migraine. Two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trials investigating the efficacy and safety of topiramate in the treatment of patients with chronic migraine have recently been completed. This review presents comparative data from these 2 clinical trials, which suggest that topiramate at a dose of 100 mg daily is effective and generally well tolerated in chronic migraine.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1087-1095
Number of pages9
JournalHeadache
Volume48
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2008

Keywords

  • Chronic migraine
  • Topiramate

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Neurology
  • Clinical Neurology

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