title: Relatively slow and long-lasting antimigraine effect of dihydroergotamine is most likely due to basic pharmacological attributes of the drug: a review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  If a drug has a slow dissociation from the receptor this can result in a long duration of effect and a slow effect. The long duration of the antimigraine effect of dihydroergotamine (DHE) has been reported previously whereas a possible slow onset of DHE's antimigraine effect, which is the subject of this review, has only rarely been mentioned.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eight randomised, controlled trials (RCT) with DHE for acute treatment with migraine were selected from the literature. The speed of the effect of DHE in migraine was evaluated by plotting the effect up to four hours against time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Subcutaneous DHE 1 mg was inferior to subcutaneous sumatriptan 6 mg for headache relief for the first two hours but equally effective after three hours. After intranasal DHE 2 mg the mean therapeutic gain increased slowly up to four hours. For orally inhaled DHE 0.5 mg there was a considerable time lag between therapeutic gain (maximum after two hours) and plasma concentrations of DHE (Tmax = 12 min).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  DHE has a slow dissociation from the receptor; and this basic attribute of the drug is the most likely cause of the general relatively slow anti-migraine effect of DHE.
authors.affiliation: Danish Headache Centre, University of Copenhagen, Department of Neurology, Glostrup Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: Peer C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Tfelt-Hansen
mesh_terms: D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004087:Dihydroergotamine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D013995:Time
chemical_list: D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic; D004087:Dihydroergotamine
keywords: Dihydroergotamine; long duration; migraine; slow action