Correlation between lipophilicity and triptan outcomes.

Background: It has been suggested that triptans achieving higher central nervous system (CNS) levels should have an advantage in efficacy, if central actions are important. Objective.-Our aim was to correlate the efficacy and tolerability results of triptans with their lipophilicity.

Preventing disturbing migraine aura with lamotrigine: an open study.

Background: Lamotrigine has been suggested as possibly effective for preventing migraine aura.

Objective: To describe our experience with a series of patients with disturbing migraine aura treated with lamotrigine.

Methods: The members of the Headache Group of the Spanish Society of Neurology were sent an ad hoc questionnaire to collect patients treated with lamotrigine due to disturbing migraine aura.

Topiramate-responsive headache due to idiopathic intracranial hypertension in Behçet syndrome.

A 14-year-old adolescent was seen with an 8-month history of almost daily incapacitating headaches due to idiopathic intracranial hypertension in Behçet syndrome. All his clinical signs and symptoms, including headache, resolved 2 to 4 weeks after topiramate was initiated. An effect on carbonic anhydrase isoenzymes II and IV, reducing cerebrospinal fluid production, could potentially explain the beneficial effect of topiramate in intracranial hypertension.

Nimodipine-enhanced opiate analgesia in cancer patients requiring morphine dose escalation: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

The ability of nimodipine, a dihydropyridine calcium antagonist, to reduce the daily dose of oral morphine in cancer patients who had developed dose escalation, was tested in 54 patients under randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled conditions. We selected patients that required at least two successive increments of morphine to maintain pain relief. A possible pharmacokinetic interaction between nimodipine and morphine was also studied in 14 patients by assaying steady-state serum levels of morphine and its 3- and 6-glucuronides.

Enhancement of opiate analgesia by nimodipine in cancer patients chronically treated with morphine: a preliminary report.

The ability of nimodipine, a calcium-channel blocker, to enhance morphine analgesia and/or modify the development of tolerance was studied in patients with cancer pain who had needed successive increments of morphine for periods ranging from 21 to 780 days. Assessment of daily morphine consumption was the primary effect parameter. Nimodipine succeeded in reducing the daily dose of morphine in 16 of 23 patients (oral, n = 13; intrathecal, n = 3), and failed to modify it in 2 patients.