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Review
. 2015 Dec;17(4):177-82.

[Tricyclic antidepressant therapy in headache]

[Article in Hungarian]
Máté Magyar  1 , Éva Csépány, Tamás Gyüre, György Bozsik, Dániel Bereczki, Csaba Ertsey
Affiliations
  • PMID: 26727721
Free article
Review

[Tricyclic antidepressant therapy in headache]

[Article in Hungarian]
Máté Magyar et al. Neuropsychopharmacol Hung. 2015 Dec.
Free article

Abstract

The two most important representatives of the primary headaches are migraine and tension-type headache. More than 10% of the population suffer from migraine and even a greater part, approximately 30-40% from tension-type headache. These two headache types have a great effect both on the individual and on the society. There are two types of therapeutic approaches to headaches: the abortive and the prophylactic therapy. Prophylactic treatment is used for frequent and/or difficult-to-treat headache attacks. Although both migraine and tension-type headache are often associated with depression, for their treatment - in contrast to the widespread medical opinion - not all antidepressants were found to be effective. Amitriptyline, which is a tricyclic antidepressant, is used as a prophylactic therapy for headache since 1968. Its efficacy has been demonstrated in several double-blind, placebo-controlled studies. Although the newer types of antidepressant, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and selective serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, have a more favorable side-effect profile than tricyclic antidepressants, their headache prophylactic effect has not been proven yet.

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