Efficacy and Tolerability of Rizatriptan and Sumatriptan in Acute Migraine in Indian Patients: A Comparison between Two Frontiers

Introduction: Migraine is a debilitating, neurological disorder, characterized by episodes of ipsilateral headache, often associated with symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, vertigo, and other sensory symptoms. The role of commonly used triptans (5 HT 1B/1D agonists) – rizatriptan and sumatriptan – is very scarcely explored in Indian population with migraine. Thus, this study was done to assess the efficacy and tolerability of 10 mg oral rizatriptan versus 50 mg oral sumatriptan for the treatment of acute moderate-to-severe migraine. Materials and Methods: A total of 113 migraine patients attending the neurology outpatient department were enrolled in our study. The efficacy parameters included in our study were pain relief, pain free at 2 h, and sustained pain-free response in both the groups. Adverse drug reactions, if any, were recorded as a measure of tolerability. Results: Overall rizatriptan showed superior efficacy in terms of pain relief at 2 h (71.92% vs. 60.71%) with a statistically significant difference at 1.5 h ( P = 0.0084) and 2 h ( P = 0.0099) and complete abolition of headache (pain free) at all the four time points spaced 30 min apart (43.85% vs. 26.78%). Twenty-four hours sustained pain-free response was also more in the rizatriptan group (63.42% vs. 47.06%) as compared to that in the sumatriptan group. The frequency of adverse effects was seen more in the sumatriptan group (83.89%) than those receiving rizatriptan (49.68%). Conclusions: Rizatriptan 10 mg was found to be more efficacious and tolerable as compared to sumatriptan 50 mg.