The role of triptans and analgesics for primary headache treatment

Primary headache especially migraine is very common disorder. The mainstay in the acute treatment of migraine is triptans (sumatriptan, zolmitriptan, eletriptan, naratriptan) and analgesics or NSAIDs. However, it is still unclear the appropriate usage of triptans and analgesics or NSAIDs for migraine treatment. Mild attacks may be managed with analgesics or NSAIDs while severe disabling ones usually respond better to specific antimigraine drugs, triptans. Analgesics or NSAIDs administration is always plagued with the potential of subsequent drug induced headache phenomenon. Therefore usage of analgesics or NSAIDs should be restricted only for young and typical type patients with migraine. As triptan medication method corresponding to various life style, in addition to tablet formulation, there are subcutaneous injector and nasal spray formulation in sumatriptan, rapid melt tablet formulation in zolmitriptan (rapimelt) and naratriptan (rapidisk). These different type of formulation are valuable for patient's needs.