Results of the Expanding Access to Triptans: Assessment of Clinical Outcome study have been published in Headache The Journal of Head and Face Pain.  The study was conducted at 6 primary care sites and 4 headache specialty sites.

One hundred and ninety seven migraineurs were enrolled in a randomized trial to evaluate whether access to larger amounts of migraine therapy would improve clinical outcomes.   Each subject was provided with 9 tables of 10 mg rizatriptan ODT per month and recorded treatment and migraine frequency during the 3-month Baseline Period.  Following Baseline, subjects were randomly assigned to either the Formulary Limit (FL) or Clinical Limit (CL) group, asked to treat with study drug and record treatment and migraine symptoms for the next 3 months.  The FL group received 9 tablets of 10 mg rizatriptan ODT per month and the CL group received 27 tablets per month.

There was not a statistically significant difference in number of migraine days between the two groups; however, the CL group did treat headaches at a lower severity.  No subjects in the CL group developed chronic migraine even though they had more than 9 tables of rizatriptan available each month.  Rizatriptan was well tolerated by both groups.
This study was supported in part by a research grant from the Merck-Assisted Studies Program of Merck & Co., Inc.  The opinions expressed in this summary are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of Merck & Co., Inc.

Participating Investigators:
Patricia Barrington, DO
Roger Cady, MD
Jerome Goldstein, MD
Brian Koffman, MD
Gary Ruoff, MD
Dhiren Shah, MD
Stephen Silberstein, MD
Timothy Smith, MD
James Voirin, DO
Randal L. Von Seggern, PharmD

Cady RK, MD, Goldstein JG, MD, Silberstein S, MD, Juhász M, MS, Ramsey K, RPh, Rodgers A, MS, et al. Headache. 2009;49(10):1402-1413.