Venlafaxine as good as amitriptyline in reducing intensity and duration of headaches in migraine

Results of the study are:

Eighty patients participated in the current study, out of which 57.5% were females. The mean age of the participants was 33 years, and the mean duration of disease was eight years. Both amitriptyline and venlafaxine significantly reduced the number of attacks per month (AMT: from 10.98 to 2.98, VLF: from 9.98 to 3.18), and six-item Headache Impact Test (HIT-6) score (AMT: from 67.78 to 49.73, VLF: from 66.65 to 48.88), and no significant difference was observed between the two drugs. The results demonstrated no significant relationship between age or disease duration with the score of the HIT-6. The decrease rate in the score of the HIT-6 in males was higher than that of females which shows the modifier role of the gender. Besides, it is noteworthy to mention that the adverse effects of amitriptyline exceeded the venlafaxine among the patients.

Thus, the effectiveness of AMT and VLF in terms of their potential to reduce the intensity and duration of headaches was more noticeable in male patients than female patients. In terms of adverse drug reactions, patients in the amitriptyline group complained more about adverse drug reactions (ADR) than patients in the venlafaxine group. It seems that in similar conditions, venlafaxine could have priority over amitriptyline in migraine prophylaxis.

Reference:

Venlafaxine can reduce the migraine attacks as well as amitriptyline: A noninferiority randomized trial by Mohaddeseh Hedayat et al. published in the Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0303846722000324?via%3Dihub