“Migraines” are a fact of life for millions of people. It attacks in the form of severe headache which strike without any warning affecting the household activities.
Once thought as one of the effective treatments for the migraines, the epilepsy drug ‘oxcarbazepine’ (Trileptal) does not seem to hold the same good place now.

In a recent study, research was done to see the effectiveness of this drug on treating the migraines. No differences were found in the symptoms and conditions of the people taking ‘oxcarbazepine’ or ‘placebo’.

‘Placebo’ is a therapy which is in terms of pharmacy; an inert therapy however tries to cure the patients by fighting stress with the help of suggestions and faith healing processes.

In a nearly five month placebo controlled study, Stephen Silberstein, M.D., of Thomas Jefferson University here, and colleagues reported that despite the fact that the drug, a sodium channel blocker, was found to be safe and reliant, it failed as prophylactic therapy against migraines.

The study was conducted on a group of 170 men and women who were treated with placebo or oxcarbazepine and found to show no major difference in terms of lessening the severity. All these people suffered for 3 to 9 migraine attacks a month.

The three epilepsy drugs which are profusely used for the treatment of migraines are ‘topiramate’, ‘divalproex’ and ‘gabapentin’. These drugs run on various mechanisms out of which one is GABA which implies regulation of the neurotransmitter. However, ‘oxcarbazepine’ does not appear to affect GABA activity. This creates a possibility for epilepsy drugs to regulate GABA, to prevent migraine, Silberstein noted.

However this study is still found to be lacking in terms of appropriate response, Silberstein says it might include that the patients who participated in the study were suffering from difficult to treat migraines.

More than 28 million Americans are affected by this disease every year, bringing absenteeism and impaired work function and costing around $1billion dollars per year on medical care to fight this. Women are more likely to experience migraine headaches than men, 18 percent of women versus six percent of men.

This study was supported by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, maker of oxcarbazepine. They also awarded Dr. Silberstein honoraria during the course of this study and received grants for other researches and activities. Three of the other study authors are employees of Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 21,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to improving patient care through education and research.

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