Efficacy and tolerability of melatonin versus topiramate in migraine prevention

Abstract

Background: Migraine is one of the common neurological diseases. the aims of this study are to compare the effectiveness and tolerability of Topiramate and Melatonin drugs as monotherapy in the prophylaxis of migraine and to support the use of Melatonin as a preventive therapy.

Materials and Methods: a prospective, comparative study, in which 200 Patients diagnosed with migraine were enrolled. Monthly headache frequency, headache severity, mean attack duration in hours, and disability, were assessed at the baseline and at the end of 3rd month of follow up. Tolerability measures including the incidence of adverse events were recorded also.

Results: Forty patients withdrew from the study, the analysis was performed for the remaining cases, 160 patients, (76 in topiramate group and 84 in melatonin group). There was a significant improvement in the clinical response after 3 months of treatment in all parameters, and without significant differences between both groups.

Conclusion: this study showed that the Melatonin is effective as, if not superior to, Topiramate for episodic migraine prophylaxis. Moreover, it is more tolerated and has less adverse events than Topiramate.