Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Calcium-antagonists (CA) are heterogeneous group of drugs with different efficacy in migraine prophylaxis. Several studies have firmly demonstrated flunarizine (FLU), and verapamil as the proven calcium-antagonists for migraine prophylaxis. Cinnarizine (CIN), is another CA with less complications and less antihistaminic action. There is very few studies to show the effect of this drug on migraine. The current study evaluates the efficacy and safety of cinnarizine on migraine in comparison to sodium valproate, an acceptable drug in migraine prophylaxis.

Methods: The current study is a randomized double blind clinical trial on 133 participants with intractable migraine headache to evaluate the positive effect of cinnarizine in comparison to sodium valproate. The data was collected and analized by SPSS software.

Results: The mean age of cases was 34.3±10 years in Cinnarizine group and 33.4±11 in Sodium Valproate users. The headache frequency decreased to about 50% and its severity to about 30% in both groups. Although the effect of Cinnarizine was started earlier than sodium valproate , there was no significant difference between two groups of cases in improvement of headache attacks. Statistically significant difference was noted in drug’s complication led to discontinuation of treatment, 5.2% in Cinnarizine users in respect to 14% in valproate group.

Conclusion: The patients who received Cinnarizine, similar to the patients on sodium valprote showed significant improvement in headache attacks, frequency, duration and severity. Cinnarizine such as sodium valproate is an effective drug in migraine prophylaxis even in intractable headache, but with lesser severe complication.