Atogepant Efficacious for Patients With Chronic Migraine

WEDNESDAY, June 26, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with chronic migraine (CM), with and without medication overuse, atogepant is efficacious, according to a study published online June 27 in Neurology.

Peter J. Goadsby, M.D., Ph.D., from King's College London, and colleagues examined the efficacy of atogepant for the preventive treatment of CM in participants with and without acute medication overuse. Participants had at least a one-year history of CM, ≥15 monthly headache days (MHDs), and at least eight monthly migraine days (MMDs) during the four-week baseline period, and were randomly allocated to receive placebo, atogepant 30 mg twice daily (BID), or atogepant 60 mg once daily (QD) for 12 weeks.

The researchers found that 66.2 percent of the 755 participants in the modified intent-to-treat population met the criteria for baseline acute medication overuse. The least squares mean difference (LSMD) in MMDs was -2.7 and -1.9 for atogepant 30 mg BID and atogepant 60 mg QD, respectively, from placebo. There were reductions observed in mean MHDs (LSMD, −2.8 and −2.1, respectively) and mean acute medication use days (LSMD, −2.8 and −2.6, respectively), while an increase was seen in the proportion that achieved ≥50 percent reduction in MMDs (odds ratios, 2.5 and 2.3 with atogepant 30 mg BID and atogepant 60 mg QD, respectively). The proportion of atogepant-treated participants meeting acute medication overuse criteria decreased 52.1 to 61.9 percent over 12 weeks. Patient-reported outcome measures improved with atogepant.

"Treatment with atogepant may potentially decrease the risk of developing rebound headache by reducing the use of pain medications," Goadsby said in a statement.

Several authors disclosed ties to biopharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie, which manufactures atogepant and funded the study.

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