Propranolol (Inderal) and other blood pressure medications in the beta blocker family are effective for the prevention of migraines. In a previous post 4 years ago I mentioned a report of 7 patients whose migraines were aborted with beta blocker, timolol, eye drops that are used to treat glaucoma.
The same group of doctors at the University of Missouri, Kansas City conducted a double-blind crossover study of timolol eye drops for the treatment of acute migraines. The results of the trial were published this month in JAMA Neurology. The treatment consisted of 4 drops of 0.5% timolol (this compares with 10 to 30 mg dose taken orally. Ten patients treated almost 200 migraine attacks. Four participants found timolol highly effective compared with placebo and one patients rated placebo as highly effective compared with timolol. No side effects were observed.
Instilling timolol eye drops is not likely to become widely used for the treatment of acute migraines. However, this treatment maybe worth trying in patients who do not respond or do not tolerate triptans and NSAIDs.
