Usefulness of nutraceuticals in migraine prophylaxis

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-017-2901-1

Abstract-Summary Nutraceutical treatment consists of taking vitamins, supplements (magnesium, ribo- flavin, coenzyme Q10, and alpha lipoic acid) and herbal preparations (feverfew and butterbur), and its usage is frequently determined by dissatisfaction with conven- tional medical therapies.

This brief overview provides information about the potential efficacy and side effects of various nutraceutical products summarizing randomized controlled trials of some of the most commonly used non-pharmacological treatments for the pro- phylaxis and treatment of migraine, including magnesium, coenzyme Q10, ribofla- vin (vitamin B2), petasites, and feverfew.

Introduction Studies on the use of magnesium supplement showed improvement of migraine symptoms [525], decrease of migraine frequency [526] and burden of disease [525], in addition to their effectiveness in the short-term prevention of menstrual migraine.

Studies on riboflavin treatment showed its efficacy for the prevention of migraine reporting a significant reduction of headache attack frequency, a good treatment adherence and an excellent tolerability [527–529], even if it did not change the

4.7 Complementary Alternative Medicine

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cortical information processing significantly as measured by the auditory evoked cortical potentials [528] and had no efficacy in children preventing migraine treat- ment [530].

The efficacy of butterbur treatment in migraine prevention has been shown in several studies both in adults [531–533] and in children [534, 535], where there was a significant reduction of migraine attacks through its anti-spasmodic, anti-inflam- matory effects and blocking of calcium channel.

More recent studies [525] evaluated the efficacy of proprietary nutritional sup- plement containing a nutraceutical combination as prophylactic treatment for migraine.

Another nutraceutical combination of feverfew and ginger [536] showed positive

effect on migraine attack frequency and pain relief.

Concluding Remarks This brief overview underlined that nutraceutical treatment was useful in decreasing headache frequency, intensity and burden and in increasing the sense of self-effi- cacy in individuals with headache.

Further researches should investigate this alternative therapeutic option and how

this might influence the course and outcome of headache disorders.

Acknowledgement A machine generated summary based on the work of D’Onofrio, Florindo; Raimo, Simona; Spitaleri, Daniele; Casucci, Gerardo; Bussone, Gennaro. 2017  in Neurological Sciences.

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