A Clinical Trial for Evaluating the Efficacy of Magnesium in Migraine Prophylaxis

Migraine is a common, episodic, and disabling disorder. Preventive therapy is used to reduce the frequency, duration, and severity of attacks. This study was done to asseses the effect of oral magnesium supplementation and propranolol on patients with moderate to severe migraine. Subjects and This is a double-blinded, placebo controlled, randomized study of 110 subjects allocated into two groups (55 patients in each). The case group received propranolol 20 mg/bid and magnesium oxide 500 mg/d and the control group received propranolol 20 mg/bid and placebo). Number of migraine attacks in month (frequency), headache severity and Migraine Disability Assessment Test (MIDAS) were assessed 1 month and 3 month after the initiation of drug treatment protocol. Gathered data were analyzed with SPSS 21 software, with p<0.05 was considered as significant. Statistically significant reduction in number of migraine attacks, headache severity and MIDAS score were obtained after third month in both groups. Magnesium produced significant reduction of headache severity (3.89±0.72 Vs 4.62±0.95, P=0.0001), but no significant difference in the number of migraine attacks were recorded between both groups. According to this study, the combination of magnesium with propranolol is more effective in reducing the severity of migraine headache than propranolol alone. It seems that oral magnesium supplement specially in severe migraine can be useful for add on to the first line migraine prophylaxis drugs.