Long-term treatment of chronic migraine with OnabotulinumtoxinA: efficacy, quality of life and tolerability in a real-life setting

Botulinum toxin was shown to be effective in treatment of chronic migraine. We wanted to explore its efficacy and tolerability in chronic application under real-life conditions. For this, 27 consecutive patients (age 45.6 ± 10.8 years, 25 females, 2 males) received altogether 176 injection series (IS) with 189.7 ± 45.8MU onabotulinumtoxinA (Botox^®) according to the PREEMPT scheme. During the study period altogether 6.5 ± 2.9 (min 4, max 13) IS were applied per patient (total treatment time of 73.1 ± 36.9 weeks). 96 % of the patients reported benefit. Monthly headache days were reduced from 18.9 ± 3.9 to 8.7 ± 4.5 (p < 0.001, −53.7 %), migraine days from 16.8 ± 4.9 to 7.4 ± 4.6 (p < 0.001, −55.1 %), autonomic days from 8.6 ± 7.5 to 2.7 ± 4.2 (p < 0.001, −71.9 %) and medication days from 14.2 ± 4.6 to 8.3 ± 4.2 (p < 0.001, −71.1 %). Health-related quality of life improved by 0.6–1.5 standard deviations (SD) (Short Form Health Survey), migraine-related quality of life by 1.4–2.0 SD (Migraine-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire) and by 1.9 SD (Headache Impact Test), depression by 1.1 SD (Beck Depression Inventory). Subjective global clinical improvement was 2.6 ± 0.6 (Global Clinical Improvement Scale). All improvements were stable throughout the entire study period. Adverse effects were infrequent, mild and transient. Botulinum toxin provides highly effective and safe long-term treatment of chronic migraine.