Summary
In an open, multi-centre, general practice study, 834 patients were entered to determine the efficacy and tolerance of pizotifen in a dose of 1.5 mg at night in the prophylaxis of migraine. Patients took pizotifen for 2 months after a run-in period of 1 month on previous prophylactic therapy. The results from the 307 patients who fully completed daily diary cards showed that pizotifen significantly reduced the mean number of migraine attacks per month and, on general questioning, the majority of patients said that they found pizotifen beneficial. The most frequent side-effects reported were drowsiness, although in one-third of affected patients this was transient, and weight gain, where the average increase was 0.7 kg (1.5 lb) over 2 months.