A recent study published online in Neurology on June 27 reveals that atogepant is effective in treating chronic migraine (CM), both with and without medication overuse. The study, led by Dr. Peter J. Goadsby from King's College London, assessed the preventive efficacy of atogepant in participants who had a long history of CM, defined as experiencing at least 15 monthly headache days (MHDs) and at least eight monthly migraine days (MMDs) during a four-week baseline period.

Participants were randomly assigned to receive either a placebo, atogepant 30 mg twice daily (BID), or atogepant 60 mg once daily (QD) for 12 weeks. Of the 755 participants in the modified intent-to-treat population, 66.2 percent met the criteria for baseline acute medication overuse.

The study found significant reductions in MMDs and MHDs among those treated with atogepant compared to the placebo group. Specifically, the least squares mean difference (LSMD) in MMDs was -2.7 for atogepant 30 mg BID and -1.9 for atogepant 60 mg QD. Similar reductions were observed in mean MHDs, with LSMDs of -2.8 and -2.1, respectively.

Additionally, the mean acute medication use days decreased by LSMDs of -2.8 for atogepant 30 mg BID and -2.6 for atogepant 60 mg QD. The proportion of participants achieving a ≥50 percent reduction in MMDs increased, with odds ratios of 2.5 for atogepant 30 mg BID and 2.3 for atogepant 60 mg QD.

Moreover, the proportion of atogepant-treated participants meeting acute medication overuse criteria decreased significantly, ranging from 52.1 to 61.9 percent over the 12 weeks. Patient-reported outcome measures also improved with atogepant treatment.

Dr. Goadsby noted that "treatment with atogepant may potentially decrease the risk of developing rebound headache by reducing the use of pain medications."

It is important to note that several authors of the study disclosed ties to biopharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie, which manufactures atogepant and funded the study.