The Broader Impact of Eptinezumab for Chronic Migraine Management: Fawad Khan, MD, FACNS, FAHS

WATCH TIME: 6 minutes

"We saw a significant improvement in the number of good days per month, which is amazing because that's how many days that they attribute to having a symptom-free component and also feeling better."

In migraine, some patients with the condition still report that they continue to endure significant disease burden despite the recent advancements in the field for treatments. Due to the controlled design of randomized trials for migraine prevention treatments, many patients with comorbidities or prior exposure to certain therapies are excluded. A recent observational study newly published in The Journal of Headache and Pain showed high overall satisfaction with the effectiveness of eptinezumab (Vyepti; Lundbeck) treatment among most patients with chronic migraine and their providers.¹ These findings provided evidence of the effectiveness of this treatment in real-world clinical settings which can help shape the future of treatment paradigms.

In the study, dubbed REVIEW, investigators reported that enrolled patients (n = 94) experienced a mean of 8 self-reported "good" days/month before eptinezumab treatment, which increased to 18 after treatment. Following eptinezumab treatment, patients saw decreases of 26% and 23%, respectively, in average days/month on prescription and over-the-counter medication use. For context, coming into the study most patients had an average of at least 10 days/month on prescription.

Prior to eptinezumab treatment, 62% of patients reported being at least slightly concerned about infusions. After eptinezumab infusion, this dropped to 14%. Authors noted that the findings from the patients questioned about eptinezumab were consistent with the responses surveyed from their clinicians.

This study was conducted by senior author Fawad Khan, MD, FACNS, FAHS, a neurologist at Ochsner Medical Center and the director of The McCasland Family Comprehensive Headache Center, and colleagues. Recently, Khan sat down with NeurologyLive® in an interview to discuss how does the broader study population of this research differs from the original double-blind placebo-controlled studies. He also talked about the specific outcome measures used in this study that deviate from traditional clinical trials. Moreover, Khan spoke about how the reduction in prescription and over-the-counter medication usage among patients with chronic migraine reflects the eptinezumab’s efficacy.

REFERENCES
1. Argoff C, Herzog SP, Smith RM, et al. Real-world effectiveness and satisfaction with intravenous eptinezumab treatment in patients with chronic migraine: REVIEW, an observational, multi-site, US-based study. J Headache Pain. 2024;25(1):65. Published 2024 Apr 25. doi:10.1186/s10194-024-01764-9