Treatment patterns, health resource consumption, and costs of patients with migraine in an Italian real-world setting

Treatment Patterns for and Characteristics of Headache in Children and Adolescents Aged 6-17 Years in Japan: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Analysis of Health Insurance Claims Data

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the prescription patterns for patients aged 6-17 years with headaches in the REZULT database.

METHODS

We cross-sectionally investigated (Study 1) the pattern of prescription and the proportion of triptan overprescription (≥30 tablets/90 d of triptans) among patients diagnosed with headaches in 2020. Next, we longitudinally studied patients (Study 2) for more than two years from the initial headache diagnosis (July 2010 to April 2022). The number of prescribed tablets was counted every 90 days.

RESULTS

In Study 1, headache diagnoses were assigned to 62,568 of 543,628 (11.51%) patients, and 1524 of 62,568 (2.44%) patients received acute medication. Single nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and triptans were prescribed to 620/624 (99.36%) and 5/624 (0.80%) of patients aged 6-11 years, respectively, and 827/900 (91.89%) and 91/900 (10.11%) of patients aged 12-17 years, respectively. Triptan overprescription was observed in 11/96 (11.46%) patients, and 5/11 (45.45%) of those patients received prophylactic medication. In Study 2, 80,756/845,470 (9.55%) patients aged 6-17 years were diagnosed with headaches that persisted for at least two years. Over two years, 44/80,756 (0.05%) patients were overprescribed triptans, and 3408/80,756 (4.22%) patients were prescribed prophylaxis on at least one occasion.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on real-world data, the appropriate use of prophylactic treatment is still problematic. Overprescription of triptans was observed, although the number of patients was small.

Eptinezumab for the Prevention of Migraine: Clinical Utility, Patient Preferences and Selection - A Narrative Review

The new Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP)-targeted therapies have proven high efficacy and tolerability in episodic and chronic migraine. Eptinezumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that selectively binds CGRP with high affinity. Eptinezumab was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on February 21st, 2020, for the preventive treatment of migraine in adults. It is administered intravenously over 30 minutes with a standard dose of 100 mg and has a T-max of 30 minutes-1 hour and a half-life of 27 days. These pharmacological properties allow for a very rapid onset of effect and a quarterly administration. It is the first time that a preventive treatment for migraine can be offered as an intravenous administration. As the range of therapeutic possibilities in migraine is expanding, the treatment process must include common decision-making, where physicians should explain in detail to patients the different characteristics of treatment options beyond efficacy and side effects. Patients can now express a preference on a range of opportunities: pharmacological versus non-pharmacological approaches, route of administration, frequency of administration, efficacy, rapidity, side effects, costs, the possibility of titration or dosing, and durability of effectiveness at suspension. Also, patient preferences can be influenced by age, country, migraine severity, and earlier experience with CGRP-targeted therapies. Besides, adherence may be influenced by several factors, including route and the schedule of administration. This narrative review describes a new perspective from the patient's point of view. Clinicians should ally with patients to select treatments that meet each patient's needs and thus apply a tailored approach, addressing not only headaches. In this way, physicians would care for the patients globally and stand out their preferences on different aspects of treatment. Besides, healthcare professionals shall be aware that patients' beliefs about therapies are subject to change with increasing experience with new therapeutic approaches.