An Open-Label Clinical Study on the Efficacy of Melatonin Prophylaxis in Migraine: A Preliminary Report

Objective: Migraine, a group of syndromes, is a primary headache presenting with attacks and autonomic and neurological symptoms. In migraine low pain threshold is associated with genetic factors, and a central nervous system hyperexcitability has been determined. Preventive treatment with beta-blockers, antidepressants, and antiepileptics can cause a wide range of side effects; therefore, new therapy modalities are needed. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of melatonin in the prophylactic treatment of migraine.Met-hods: A total of 23 patients - 6 males, 17 females, with a mean age of 32.69±8.60 (18-50) - were recruited into the study. Each patient received melatonin 3 mg/day one hour before going to bed for 2 months. The number of attacks per month, attack duration (in hours), Visual Analog Scale pain intensity scores, amount of triptan use and analgesic use were recorded for each patient before and after the treatment.Re-sults: The number of attacks decreased from 6.04±1.33 to 3.21±1.97, the attack duration from 32.52±21.23 to 13.91±10.99 hours, Visual Analog Scale pain intensity score from 93.91±4.75 to 53.69±24.82 , amount of analgesic use from 6.95±3.68 to 3.43±2.59, and amount of triptan use from 5.43±1.23 to 2.52±1.75 within the first month of treatment compared to pretreatment state. Improvements in all parameters were statistically significant (p <0.001). Conc-lu-si-on: The results of the study suggest that melatonin prophylaxis may be an effective and safe treatment method in migraine. (Arc-hi-ves of Neu-ropsy-chi-atry 2012; 49: 44-7)