A drug used to prevent migraine may also be effective in people with migraine who experience rebound headaches, according to a new study published in the June 26, 2024, online issue of Neurology ® , the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. People with chronic migraine who overused pain medication had fewer monthly migraine and headache days and fewer days using pain medication when taking the migraine prevention drug atogepant. There is a high prevalence of pain medication overuse among people with migraine as they try to manage what are often debilitating symptoms.
However, medication overuse can lead to more headaches called rebound headaches, so more effective preventive treatments are needed. Our findings are encouraging, suggesting atogepant may help reduce the need for pain medication among people with chronic migraine." Peter J.
Goadsby, MD, PhD, study author of King's College London and member of the American Academy of Neurology The study involved 755 participants who had chronic migraine, defined as having 15 or more headache days per month with eight or more qualifying as migraine. Of this group, 66% met the criteria for medication overuse defined as taking pain medications such as aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or acetaminophen for 15 or more days in a month, triptans or ergots for 10 or more days a month, or any combination for 10 or more days. At the start of the study, average monthly migraine days ranged from 18 to 19,.
