Octreotide is not effective in the acute treatment of migraine

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Octreotide in the context of migraine in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Patients were instructed to treat two attacks of at least moderate pain severity, with at least a 7 day interval, using subcutaneous 100 microg octreotide or matching placebo.

The primary endpoint was the headache response defined as: severe or moderate pain becomes mild or nil, at 2 h.

Who Took Part

The study group was 51 patients.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Patients with migraine with and without aura as classified by the International Headache Society were recruited to a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover study.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Octreotide group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received Octreotide.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Octreotide group a baseline to be compared against.

Each person switched between Octreotide and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

What Was Measured

The primary endpoint was the headache response defined as: severe or moderate pain becomes mild or nil, at 2 h.

The primary endpoint was analysed using a Multilevel Analysis approach.

The subject headings attached to it are Acute Disease, Cohort Studies, Migraine Disorders and Octreotide.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Octreotide in 51 patients in people with migraine.

The publication is from 2005 (Cephalalgia : an international journal of headache), a journal based in England.

More context: the Octreotide compound page, Migraine research.