Objective: To assess the efficacy, tolerability, and patient satisfaction with almotriptan 12.5 mg across multiple migraine attacks in routine clinical settings.
Background: The efficacy and tolerability of almotriptan have been well-documented in clinical trials. Less information is available about patient acceptance of therapy under normal prescribing conditions in routine practice.
Methods: This was a prospective, open-label surveillance study conducted on 899 adults with documented attacks fulfilling the IHS criteria for migraine in medical practices of 307 neurologists and primary care physicians across Germany from June 2001 to April 2002. Patients were eligible for inclusion in the study if they were being treated for the first time with almotriptan. Main outcome measures were pain relief, pain free, consistency, tolerability, and satisfaction with almotriptan 12.5 mg when used to treat multiple migraine attacks.
Results: A total of 899 patients with migraine treated 1 (18.4%), 2 (25.9%), or 3 (55.6%) migraine attacks with almotriptan for a total of 2131 attacks. Pain relief at 2 hours was achieved in 84.5% of attacks; pain free was achieved in 41.4%. Consistency of almotriptan 12.5 mg (at least 2 out of 3 attacks successfully treated) was 87.3%. Most patients (88.5%) indicated that they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their treatment with almotriptan and 80.3% of patients expressed that almotriptan 12.5 mg therapy was better than their prior therapy. Physicians' global assessment of the efficacy of almotriptan 12.5 mg was judged to be "good" and "very good" in 87.6% of the patients, and tolerability was considered to be "good" and "very good" in 96.3% of patients. More than 92% of physicians indicated that they would continue to prescribe almotriptan for their patients.
Conclusion: The high levels of efficacy, consistency, and tolerability of almotriptan 12.5 mg observed in this postmarketing surveillance study are not only consistent with the findings of controlled clinical trials but also resulted in high rates of patient and physician satisfaction with almotriptan and patient preference for almotriptan over prior acute treatments, including other triptans.