Evaluation of the concomitant use of oral preventive treatments and onabotulinumtoxinA in chronic migraine: the PREVENBOX study

Background and purpose OnabotulinumtoxinA is an effective preventive treatment for chronic migraine (CM). In CM, in addition to a reduction in headache frequency, a decreased reliance on oral prophylactics is also indicative of treatment effectiveness. This study aimed to quantify the change in the use of oral prophylactics after treatment with onabotulinumtoxinA in patients with CM. Methods This was a retrospective, multicentric, cross‐sectional study. Patients with CM (International Classification of Headache Disorders‐3beta) that had been treated with onabotulinumtoxinA were enrolled consecutively. We collected parameters related to each patient’s pre‐treatment situation, as well as their current situation, focusing on frequency and intensity of migraine, number of oral prophylactics and the respective cycle of onabotulinumtoxinA. Univariate and logistic regression analyses were performed. Results We included 542 patients, 90.0% of whom were taking oral preventive treatments. During treatment with onabotulinumtoxinA, 47.8% withdrew at least one prophylactic and 41.6% stopped using oral prophylactics altogether. Factors associated with a reduction or cessation of oral prophylactics were >50% improvement in frequency and intensity, remission to episodic migraine, use of topiramate as an initial treatment, increased number of infiltrations and shorter chronification period (P