Ergotamine in the acute treatment of migraine - A review and European consensus

Ergotamine has been used in clinical practice for the acute treatment of mi graine for over 50 years, but there has been little agreement on its place in clinical practice. An expert group from Europe reviewed the pre-clinical and clinical data on ergotamine as it relates to the treatment of migraine . From this review, specific suggestions for the patient groups and appropr iate use of ergotamine have been agreed. In essence, ergotamine, from a med ical perspective, is the drug of choice in a limited number of migraine suf ferers who have infrequent or long duration headaches and are likely to com ply with dosing restrictions. For most migraine sufferers requiring a speci fic antimigraine treatment, a triptan is generally a better option from bot h an efficacy and side-effect perspective.