The classical drugs for migraine prophylaxis; flunarizine and topiramate are significantly effective in managing the non-headache symptoms of migraine says a recently published study in The International Journal of Neuroscience. This study was conducted to investigate the comparative effectiveness of flunarizine versus topiramate on the non-headache symptoms of migraine and alterations in prolactin and dopamine levels before and after the treatment.

The study population involved 66 individuals having an episodic migraine. Participants were randomly fractionated into either the flunarizine arm or topiramate arm.

It was observed that the non-headache symptoms of migraine in both the arms were notably better post-therapy compared to pre-therapy in the premonitory, headache and resolution phases.

In flunarizine arm, the prolactin levels (t=-4.097) were higher and dopamine levels (t = 1.909) were lower compared to before treatment. However, no significant difference was observed in the dopamine (t = 1.556) and prolactin (t = 1.099) levels before and after topiramate therapy.

The above observations portray the comparable efficacy of flunarizine and topiramate and the involvement of dopamine-prolactin axis as an underlying mechanism of the flunarizine for the treatment of non-headache symptoms of migraine.