Comparison of efficacy and safety of three drugs levetiracetam, sodium valproate, and nortriptyline in the prevention of migraine headache

Headache is the most common cause of referral to a physician. Two approaches of the migraine treatment include: treat the acute attacks and prevent future attacks. In this regard, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of three drugs lutiracetam, sodium valproate and nortriptyline in the control of migraine headaches in patients with migraine in Birjand Neurology Clinic.

This study is a quasi-experimental study. According to the physician, 120 migraine patients were divided into one of three groups: Lutiracetam with a daily dose of 250 mg, sodium valproate 500 mg and nortriptyline 25 mg for 4 weeks. Patientschr('39') information was collected through a questionnaire. Then the data were analyzed by SPSS) Version 16) software by using chi-square, paired t-test, and ANOVA.

120 patients were divided into three groups of 40 patients. The mean age of the subjects was 33±11 years, 53.3% of them were female and 46.7% of them were male. In total, 46.7% of patients had severe headache before taking these three drugs. None of them had severe headache after taking the drug and 77.5% of them had mild headache. Lutiracetam group showed the greatest decrease in headache intensity. (P=0.01).

Levetiracetam appears to be more effective than the other two drugs, especially sodium valproate, in reducing different degrees of headache.