This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Fremanezumab reduces medication overuse for chronic migraine
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
SAN FRANCISCO — Fremanezumab reduced the use of acute headache medications and effectively prevented chronic migraine among patients with or without medication overuse, according to a presentation at the American Headache Society Annual Scientific Meeting.
Stephen Silberstein, MD, director of the Headache Center at Jefferson University Hospitals, and colleagues conducted a study to assess if fremanezumab (Teva Pharmaceutical Industries) reduces the average of monthly headache days compared with placebo. They also evaluated whether fremanezumab affected medication overuse.
The researchers enrolled 1,130 adults aged 18 to 70 years with chronic migraine. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either fremanezumab quarterly (n = 376), fremanezumab monthly (n = 379) or placebo (n = 375) for a 12-week treatment period.
Silberstein and colleagues found that participants receiving fremanezumab either quarterly or monthly had a significantly greater reduction in the monthly average number of headache days (-4.7 and -5.2 days, respectively) than those receiving placebo (-2.5 days). There was a reduction in overuse of acute headache medications and overall acute headache medication use among patients treated with fremanezumab.
More patients with baseline medication overuse in the fremanezumab quarterly (55%) and monthly (61%) group did not have medication overuse during the course of the study compared with placebo (46%).
“This trial shows that we can put the nail in the coffin that everyone needs to be detoxified,” Silberstein said during his presentation. “Patients treated with fremanezumab may not need to be detoxified to achieve remission of medication overuse headache.” – by Alaina Tedesco
Reference:
Silberstein S, et al. IOR-07. Presented at: American Headache Society Annual Scientific Meeting; June 28-July 1, 2018; San Francisco.
Disclosure: Healio Internal Medicine was unable to confirm relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.