Economic implications of early treatment of migraine with sumatriptan tablets

Roger K. Cady, Fred Sheftell, Richard B. Lipton, W. Jacqueline Kwong, Stephen O'Quinn

Research output: Contribution to journalComment/debatepeer-review

25 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Early treatment of migraine with sumatriptan 50 mg and 100 mg, while pain is mild, has been reported to enhance pain-free response 2 hours and 4 hours postdose and sustained pain-free response 2 to 24 hours postdose compared with treatment when pain has become moderate to severe. Early treatment with sumatriptan 50 mg and 100 mg also resulted in less redosing, which translated to a reduction in the mean number of doses used per migraine episode. Objective: We examined the economic implications of early treatment with sumatriptan 50 mg and 100 mg while pain is mild versus treatment when pain has become moderate to severe. Methods: Using data from retrospective analyses of a dose-ranging clinical trial of sumatriptan (protocol S2CM09) involving 1003 patients, we estimated the mean cost per treatment success for a hypothetical population of 1000 migraine patients who received treatment with sumatriptan 50-mg or 100-mg tablets early while pain was mild versus treatment when pain had become moderate to severe. Results: With a conservative estimate of migraine frequency of 1.5 episodes per month, the total cost of early migraine treatment with sumatriptan 50 mg and 100 mg was reduced by $31.68 and $20.16, respectively, per patient per year. The average cost per pain-free treatment success was reduced by 32% to 57% with sumatriptan 50 mg and 100 mg if migraines were treated while pain was mild in intensity versus when pain had become moderate to severe. Conclusions: Treatment of migraine with sumatriptan 50-mg and 100-mg tablets is effective regardless of whether pain is mild, moderate, or severe. However, initiating treatment while pain is mild may be more cost-effective than delaying treatment until pain has become moderate to severe.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)284-291
Number of pages8
JournalClinical Therapeutics
Volume23
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2001

Keywords

  • Early treatment
  • Migraine
  • Mild pain
  • Pain-free
  • Sumatriptan

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pharmacology
  • Pharmacology (medical)

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