Meta-analysis on the Efficacy of Glutamate Receptor Antagonists for Acute Migraine Treatment

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND@#Glutamate is implicated in the pathophysiology of migraine, a common neurological disorder. Therefore, glutamate receptor antagonists (GluRAs) have been suggested as a novel migraine treatment that are able to overcome the limitations of triptans.@*OBJECTIVE@#The aim of this study was to perform a meta-analysis to assess the efficacy of GluRAs for patients with migraine. Method: The PubMed, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, and Clinical Trial.gov databases were searched for randomized placebo-controlled trials of the efficacy of GluRAs for patients with migraine conducted up to August 2019. Two independent reviewers screened the literature according to inclusion and exclusion criteria and performed quality assessment and data extraction. Review Manager 5.3 software was used for the meta-analysis.@*RESULTS@#Three studies involving a total of 206 patients were included in the final analysis. Compared with placebo, GluRAs significantly improved the pain-free response at 2 hours (odds ratio [OR]=3.85, 95% confidence intervals [CIs]=1.63–9.09) and the 24-hour sustained pain freedom (OR=7.40; 95% CIs=2.36–23.20). The use of rescue medications with GluRAs was lower compared to that with placebo, but the difference was not significant (OR=0.39, 95% CI=0.10–1.47).@*CONCLUSION@#Our meta-analysis showed that GluRAs were more effective than placebo for patients with migraine.