Intranasal sumatriptan for the acute treatment of migraine in children

Pharmacological treatment of acute migraine in adolescents and children

Migraine is a common disease in children and adolescents. The incidence of migraine has increased alarmingly in the general population during recent decades. Migraine causes considerable individual suffering and impaired quality of life. Therefore, appropriate management is essential. In this article, the treatment of acute migraine in children and adolescents will be reviewed. Only a few randomized controlled studies have been published and high placebo rates are a major problem for proving superiority of active drugs. Generally, acetaminophen (paracetamol) and ibuprofen are accepted as drugs of first choice, even though the evidence is poor for the former and limited for latter. Among 14 studies on triptans in adolescents, 9 showed some superiority over placebo with respect to pain relief and pain freedom, and among 6 studies in children, 5 suggest some superiority over placebo. Sumatriptan nasal spray and zolmitriptan nasal spray have been approved for adolescents in Europe; almotriptan has been approved for adolescents in the USA, as has rizatriptan for patients aged 6-17 years. A recent study demonstrated the efficacy of a fixed combination of sumatriptan and naproxen in adolescents with migraine. In conclusion, evidence for the pharmacological treatment of acute migraine in children is very poor and evidence for adolescents is better but still limited.

Abdominal migraine: evidence for existence and treatment options

There is evidence to suggest that, in children, episodic abdominal pain occurring in the absence of headache may be a migrainous phenomenon. There are four separate strands of evidence for this: the common co-existence of abdominal pain and migraine headaches; the similarity between children with episodic abdominal pain and children with migraine headaches, with respect to social and demographic factors, precipitating and relieving factors, and accompanying gastrointestinal, neurological and vasomotor features; the effectiveness of nonanalgesic migraine therapy (such as pizotifen, propanolol, cyproheptadine and the triptans) in abdominal migraine; and the finding of similar neurophysiological features in both migraine headache and abdominal migraine. Abdominal migraine is rare, but not unknown, in adults. Many families are content with a diagnosis and reassurance that the episodes, though distressing, are not the result of serious pathology. Some patients respond to simple dietary and other prophylactic measures. There is scant evidence on which to base recommendations for the drug management of abdominal migraine. What little literature exists suggests that the antimigraine drugs pizotifen, propanolol and cyproheptadine are effective prophylactics. Nasal sumatriptan (although not licensed for pediatric use) may be effective in relieving abdominal migraine attacks.