Drugs Under Clinical Trials for the Treatment of Migraine

Migraine is one of the headache disorders, based on the frequency and other symptoms associated with headaches, migraine disorder can be classified into migraine with aura, without aura, episodic migraine, and chronic migraine. The exact mechanism involved in the etiology of migraine disorder is not known. However, the involvement of many risk factors is identified, including stress, hormonal changes, skipped meals, weather changes, excessive or inadequate sleep, odour, exposure to light, consumption of alcohol, smoking, late sleeping, heat, exercise, etc. The prevalence of migraine rise is three times higher in relatives with migraine disorder than in relatives without migraine disorder. The types of treatment or management of migraine can be classified into two types, namely abortive treatment and prophylactic treatment. The objective of the abortive treatment is to stop the progression of the headache. This type of treatment is also known as acute treatment. The second type of treatment is prophylactic, also known as a preventive treatment. The prime objective of the treatment is to reduce the attack frequency, improve responsiveness to acute attacks, and reduce disability. The adverse effects and ineffectiveness of the available therapy urge scientists to discover novel therapies or new drugs or to repurpose the existing drug molecules as antimigraine drugs. This book chapter is focused on drugs under clinical trials to prevent or treat migraine disorders. The core objectives of most clinical studies are to assess the safety, efficacy, and tolerability of new or existing drug molecules for new therapeutic indications. The drugs under clinical trials are pointing to any of the following targets: calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), CGRP receptor, cyclooxygenase enzyme, histamine type 3 receptor, serotonin receptor, cyclooxygenase enzyme, toll-like receptor-4 etc. to produce the desired prophylactic or therapeutic effects in migraine patients.