A non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drug naproxen (Aleve) alone seems to be more effective than naproxen combined with sumatriptan (Treximet), according to a study by Dr. Roger Cady and his colleagues from Missouri, which was presented at the International Headache Congress in Boston.
This was a small study involving 39 patients who suffered with moderate to severe attacks of migraine. The researchers looked at possible effect of acute medications on frequency of headaches. As migraine frequency increases, so too can the risk of medication overuse, which leads to more headaches. On the other hand, frequent administration of acute medications may act both as an acute and prophylactic treatment. The patients in the study were 18 to 65 years of age, with frequent episodic migraine with or without aura, in Stage 2 migraine (3 to 8 headache days per month) or Stage 3 migraine (9 to 14 headache days per month). Patients were asked to treat their migraines with sumatriptan/naproxen (Group A) or naproxen alone (Group B) for 3 months. Patients in Group B had a statistically significant reduction in migraine headache days at month 3 compared to baseline. Group A also had a reduction of migraine headache days but this decrease did not reach statistical significance over baseline. In addition, subjects in Group B had a statistically significant reduction of migraine attacks at all three months of the study compared to baseline. A greater than 50% reduction in the number of migraine days at month 3 occurred in 43% (6/14) of subjects in Group B compared to 17% (3/18) of subjects in Group A. Sumatriptan/naproxen was statistically superior to naproxen at 2 hours in reducing the migraine headache severity. The amount of acute medication used decreased from baseline to months 1-3 for both groups. Both treatments were well tolerated. The authors concluded that naproxen provides headache relief at 2 hours and reduces frequency of headache days and migraine attacks. Despite both groups using similar quantities of naproxen, this was not seen in sumatriptan/naproxen group, but sumatriptan/naproxen is more effective as acute treatment at 2 hours in reducing headache severity but does not significantly reduce attack frequency or the number of headache days.
If confirmed by larger studies, this is a very surprising discovery because there is little evidence indicating that triptans, like sumatriptan in this study, cause increased frequency of migraines due to medication overuse. In fact, this study did not show that sumatriptan did that, but only that naproxen alone was better at preventing migraine headaches. We also know from Dr. Richard Lipton’s large studies that aspirin has a preventive effect and naproxen and other NSAIDs do not, although they do not worsen headaches either. The large and multi-decade Framingham study showed that 81 mg of aspirin taken daily also has small but statistically significant beneficial effect in preventing migraine headaches. As far as acute treatment of migraines, in a review by an independent organization, Cochrane Reviews, the extra strength dose of aspirin (1,000 mg) was shown to be as effective as 100 mg of sumatriptan.
