How does sumatriptan perform in clinical practice?
Gothenburg Migraine Clinic, Sweden. The patient’s opinion on sumatriptan treatment has been obtained from 351 migraineurs (299F and 52M) by means of a telephone survey. The results are based on the patient’s cumulative experience of more than 20,000 subcutaneous injections and more than 2,000 tablet doses. The average period during which subcutaneous sumatriptan (12 mg/ml, 0.5 ml) was used was 19.1 +/- 0.4 months and 84% of the patients had used more than 10 injections. The average number of migraine attacks per month was 3.0 +/- 0.1, injections per attack 1.7 +/- 0.1, and number of tablets (100 mg) per attack 1.8 +/- 0.2. Attack duration was decreased from on average 38.4 +/- 2.1 h to 2.3 +/- 0.5 h by subcutaneous sumatriptan and to 3.4 +/- 1.0 by orally administered sumatriptan. The average degree of efficiency at work with migraine was 76.3 +/- 1.9% on sumatriptan compared with 26.6% on other treatment options; 85% said that sumatriptan was much better than previous conventional the