An association between
obesity and
migraine has been observed in recent studies and it is supported by plausible
biological mechanisms. The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of
frovatriptan and other
triptans in the acute treatment of
migraine, in patients enrolled in three randomized, double-blind, crossover, Italian studies and classified according to body mass index (BMI) levels, as normal weight or non-obese (NO, BMI 18.5-24.9 kg/m(2)) and
overweight or obese subjects (O, BMI ≥ 25 kg/m(2)). 414 migraineurs with or without
aura were randomized to
frovatriptan 2.5 mg or
rizatriptan 10 mg (study 1),
frovatriptan 2.5 mg or
zolmitriptan 2.5 mg (study 2),
frovatriptan 2.5 mg or
almotriptan 12.5 mg (study 3). After treating up to three episodes of
migraine in 3 months with the first treatment, patients switched to the alternate treatment for the next 3 months. The present analysis assessed
triptan efficacy in 220 N and in 109 O subjects of the 346 individuals of the intention-to-treat population. The proportion of
pain free at 2 h did not significantly differ between
frovatriptan and the comparators in either NO (30 vs. 34 %) or O (24 vs. 27 %). However, the rate of
pain free at 2 h was significantly (p < 0.05) larger in NO than in O, irrespective of the type of
triptan.
Pain relief at 2 h was also similar between
drug treatments for either subgroup.
Pain relapse occurred at 48 h in significantly (p < 0.05) fewer episodes treated with
frovatriptan in both NO (26 vs. 36 %) and O (27 vs. 49 %). The rate of 48-h relapse was similar in NO and O with
frovatriptan, while it was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in O with the comparators.
Frovatriptan, in contrast to other
triptans, retains a sustained antimigraine effect in NO and even more so in O subjects.