Journal
CEPHALALGIA
Volume 33, Issue 13, Pages 1122-1131Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0333102413483372
Keywords
Dihydroergotamine; slow action; long duration; migraine
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Introduction If a drug has a slow dissociation from the receptor this can result in a long duration of effect and a slow effect. The long duration of the antimigraine effect of dihydroergotamine (DHE) has been reported previously whereas a possible slow onset of DHE's antimigraine effect, which is the subject of this review, has only rarely been mentioned. Methods Eight randomised, controlled trials (RCT) with DHE for acute treatment with migraine were selected from the literature. The speed of the effect of DHE in migraine was evaluated by plotting the effect up to four hours against time. Findings Subcutaneous DHE 1 mg was inferior to subcutaneous sumatriptan 6 mg for headache relief for the first two hours but equally effective after three hours. After intranasal DHE 2 mg the mean therapeutic gain increased slowly up to four hours. For orally inhaled DHE 0.5 mg there was a considerable time lag between therapeutic gain (maximum after two hours) and plasma concentrations of DHE (T-max = 12 min). Conclusion DHE has a slow dissociation from the receptor; and this basic attribute of the drug is the most likely cause of the general relatively slow anti-migraine effect of DHE.
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