Introduction
Primary headache disorder, characterized by recurrent headache is the most
prevalent disease leading to widespread ill health and impaired quality of life.
In Nepal headache is one of the most common cause of patient attending neurology
clinic. Amitriptyline, Flunarizine and Topiramate are common drugs in the
treatment of primary headache. We conducted this study to compare the efficacy of drugs namely Amitriptyline, Flunarizine and Topiramate in the treatment of primary headache
Materials and Methods
This is the retrospective data analysis of primary headache patient treated with
amitriptyline, flunarizine and topiramate. On their first, second and
third subsequent visits, Headache Impact Test 6 Scoring was done by a medical
person. Patient were treated clinically. After third follow up data were
analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Categorical variables were compared by
chi-square test, paired sample t-test, ANOVA test and Welch test.
Results
A total of 142 patient data was analyzed. The most common age group were
between 20 to 39 years (56.34%) followed by 40 to 59 years (33.80%). Female were
predominant in the group 124 (87.32%). All three medication Amitriptyline,
Flunarizine and Topiramate were able to significantly lower Headache impact test
-17.23 ± 6.643, -14.06 ± 7.155, -15.82 ± 5.907 respectively (P- <0.001).
Amitriptyline was found to be better than other two drugs in reducing Headache
Impact Test.
Conclusion
All three drugs namely Amitriptyline, Flunarizine and Topiramate, are significantly
effective in the treatment of primary headache. Though tension type of headache is the most common type of headache, amitriptyline seems to be equally effective in treatment with other primary headaches.