Onset of action of various migraine prophylactics.

Four studies were pooled to study the onset of action of three pharmacologically different migraine prophylactics: flunarizine, pizotifen and propranolol. Inter-drug differences in reduction of baseline attack frequency were subjected to analysis of variance. At months 1, 2, and 3 the inter-drug differences in number of patients showing a first 50% decrease in attack rate were subjected to the Chi-square test. Both tests showed that there were no significant differences in onset of action between the three drugs. It is concluded that migraine responds to flunarizine and to other commonly used prophylactics in a similar way and with similar kinetics.