BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Neurol., 13 June 2024

Sec. Headache and Neurogenic Pain

Volume 15 - 2024 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2024.1417831

Long-term safety of OnabotulinumtoxinA treatment in chronic migraine patients: a five-year retrospective study

  • 1. Hospital Clínico Universitario Lozano Blesa, Zaragoza, Spain

  • 2. Institute for Health Research Aragon and University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

  • 3. Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, Universidad de Cantabria e IDIVAL, Santander, Spain

  • 4. Hospital de Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain

  • 5. Hospital Universitario de Burgos, Burgos, Spain

  • 6. Headache Clinic, Neurology Department, Vall d’Hebron Hospital, Barcelona, Spain

  • 7. Headache and Neurological Pain Research Group, Vall d’Hebron Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain

  • 8. Hospital Universitario de Fuenlabrada, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain

  • 9. Hospital Universitario Son Espases, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

  • 10. Hospital Clínico Universitario Miguel Servet, Zaragoza, Spain

  • 11. Hospital General Universitario de Elda, Alicante, Spain

  • 12. Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

  • 13. Hospital Clínico Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Sevilla, Spain

  • 14. Hospital Universitario La Princesa, Madrid, Spain

  • 15. Hospital Universitario de Cruces, Bilbao, Spain

  • 16. Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, Alicante, Spain

  • 17. Headache and Neuralgia Unit, Department of Neurology, Hospital de La Santa Creu I Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain

  • 18. Unidad Clínica de gestión de Neurociencias, Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena, Sevilla, Spain

  • 19. Hospital Universitario Fundación de Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain

  • 20. Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid, Spain

  • 21. Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain

  • 22. Neurology Department, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

Abstract

Background:

Real-world studies have shown the sustained therapeutic effect and favourable safety profile of OnabotulinumtoxinA (BoNTA) in the long term and up to 4 years of treatment in chronic migraine (CM). This study aims to assess the safety profile and efficacy of BoNTA in CM after 5 years of treatment in a real-life setting.

Methods:

We performed a retrospective chart review of patients with CM in relation to BoNTA treatment for more than 5 years in 19 Spanish headache clinics. We excluded patients who discontinued treatment due to lack of efficacy or poor tolerability.

Results:

489 patients were included [mean age 49, 82.8% women]. The mean age of onset of migraine was 21.8 years; patients had CM with a mean of 6.4 years (20.8% fulfilled the aura criteria). At baseline, patients reported a mean of 24.7 monthly headache days (MHDs) and 15.7 monthly migraine days (MMDs). In relation to effectiveness, the responder rate was 59.1% and the mean reduction in MMDs was 9.4 days (15.7 to 6.3 days; p < 0.001). The MHDs were also reduced by 14.9 days (24.7 to 9.8 days; p < 0.001). Regarding the side effects, 17.5% experienced neck pain, 17.3% headache, 8.5% eyelid ptosis, 7.5% temporal muscle atrophy and 3.2% trapezius muscle atrophy. Furthermore, after longer-term exposure exceeding 5 years, there were no serious adverse events (AE) or treatment discontinuation because of safety or tolerability issues.

Conclusion:

Treatment with BoNTA led to sustained reductions in migraine frequency, even after long-term exposure exceeding 5 years, with no evidence of new safety concerns.

Background

Based on the 2021 Global Burden of Disease Study, migraine is considered one of the most common disabling neurological condition and the third leading cause of disabilities worldwide (1). Chronic migraine (CM) is defined as a headache that occurs 15 or more days per month for more than 3 months, which, on at least 8 days/month, has the features of migraine headache (2). It is estimated that CM affects 1–4% of the population and that 2.2–3.1%of patients with episodic migraine progress to CM every year (3).

BoNTA is one of the few approved treatments for the prophylaxis of CM in adults. The efficacy of BoNTA was established in large multicentre randomised clinical trials: Phase III Research Evaluating Migraine Prophylaxis Therapy (PREEMPT) 1 and 2 (4, 5) and in several subsequent studies (611).

Real-world studies have proven the sustained therapeutic effect and favourable safety profile of BoNTA in the long term and up to 4 years of treatment (1220). This study aims to assess the safety profile of BoNTA in CM after 5 years of treatment in a real-life cohort of patients. As a secondary objective, we also aim to evaluate the efficacy and impact of this treatment on acute medication intake.

Methods

This multicentre prospective study included patients who underwent 5 or more years of treatment with BoNTA that were followed in headache clinics in Spain.

Patients

We included patients from 19 headache clinics who were visited consecutively for 4 months (from October 2020 to February 2021) and who had been treated with BoNTA for at least 5 years. After asking for their consent, we recorded their current migraine frequency status and performed a retrospective chart review of their baseline status.

The inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) adult (≥18 years old) at baseline; (2) CM diagnosis according to the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-3) criteria (2); and (3) history of inadequate response to at least two oral prophylactic migraine treatments (one of which had to be topiramate if no contraindications for its use or after tolerability failure, were noted based on our national guidelines) (21). The overuse of acute medication and continuation of a stable dose of concomitant oral prophylactic therapy were allowed.

The study was conducted in accordance with the STROBE guidelines for observational studies (22) and Declaration of Helsinki. Ethics approval was obtained from the Ethics Review Board of Zaragoza Health Area (GEC-ONA-2019-01) based in the Aragón Institute for Health Research (IIS Aragón), Zaragoza, Spain.

Data collection

The patients’ data were collected, including demographics (age, sex), migraine characteristics (i.e., type of migraine, age at migraine onset, duration of CM, analgesic overuse and preventive treatments), and BoNTA treatment characteristics (i.e., number of cycles and injection interval).

Safety and tolerability were assessed by reviewing the frequency and nature of the AE, which were determined at the corresponding visits through patient self-report, general non-directed questioning and physical examination.

The efficacy data included the reduction in Monthly Headache Days (MHDs), Monthly Migraine Days (MMDs), acute migraine medication days per month and mean headache attack intensity (measured based on the reported score using a visual analogue scale). Patient treatment responsiveness in terms of relative reduction for the number of MHDs and MMDs with respect to the baseline values was evaluated. We classified the patients as follows: non-responder (<30% reduction), partial responder (≥30 and < 50% reduction), responder (≥50 and ≤ 75% reduction) and high responder (>75% reduction). Moreover, we proceeded in the same way with the improvement of mean pain intensity.

Data were collected from the patients’ medical records at the baseline visit and the trimester after completing 5 or more years of treatment.

Data and statistical analysis

Statistical analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0 software for Mac (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, United States). The patients’ characteristics were reported as mean ± standard deviation (SD) or median and interquartile range (IQR) and percentages for the continuous and categorical variables, respectively. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov method was applied to confirm that the data were sampled from a Gaussian distribution. Moreover the differences between the effectiveness of treatment variables were compared using a two-paired t-test. Furthermore, statistical significance was set at a p-value of <0.05.

Results

A total of 489 patients were included [mean age, 49 ± 13.7; 82.8% female]. Patients who discontinued treatment due to lack of efficacy or poor tolerability were excluded. The patients had a mean age of onset of migraine of 21.8 ± 5.6 (18–85) years and CM for an average of 6.4 ± 3 years; 20.8% of them fulfilled the aura criteria for migraine. At baseline, the patients reported a mean of 24.7 ± 5.8 MHDs and 15.7 ± 5.9 MMDs. The main pain intensity (n = 460) was 8.9 ± 1.01. Moreover, 66.4% were diagnosed with medication overuse headache. The patients had failed a mean of 4.2 ± 1.9 preventive treatments at baseline. The most frequently used drugs were topiramate (91.4%), amitriptyline (79.3%) and beta-blockers (70.4%). Table 1 shows the patients’ baseline demographic and treatment characteristics. All patients received at least 20 (25.8 ± 5.7; 20–37; median, 23; IQR, 20–27) cycles of BoNTA (62.8% quarterly, 28.3% every 4 months and 7.3% biannually) with a mean dose of 181.8 ± 33.3 U (100–400) (median, 195 U; IQR, 155–200).

Table 1

VariablesMean ± SD/percentage
Age (years)49 ± 13.7
Gender (women)82.8%
Aura20.8%
MOH66.4%
Number of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (n = 418)18.7 ± 13.5
Number of triptans per month (n = 449)9.0 ± 7.3
DMMs (n = 477)15.7 ± 5.9
DHMs (n = 489)24.7 ± 5.8
Pain intensity (n = 460)8.9 ± 1.01
Number of failures to preventive treatments4.2 ± 1.9
Previous treatment with topiramate91.4%
Previous treatment with beta-blockers79.3%
Previous treatment with amitriptyline70.4%
Number of cycles25.8 ± 5.7
20–32 cycles91.5%
33–40 cycles6.5%
>40 cycles2%

Demographic and clinical characteristics of chronic migraine patients.

DHMs, days of headache per month; DMMs, days of migraine per month; MOH, medication overuse headache; SD, standard deviation.

In terms of efficacy, the responder rate was 59.1% and the mean reduction in MMDs was 9.34 days (from 15.7 to 6.36 days; p < 0.001). The MHDs were also reduced by 14.9 days (from 24.7 to 9.8 days; p < 0.001). The main pain intensity (n = 458) was 6.3 ± 1.89. 10.4% of the patients reported acute medication overuse (p = 0.000). At the last visit, 47.8% of the patients underwent oral concomitant preventive treatment, most commonly amitriptyline (20%), topiramate (11.4%) and beta-blockers (10.8%) (Table 2).

Table 2

VariableBaselineLast visitp-value
Mean (SD)/median [IQR]Mean (SD)/median [IQR]
DHMs (n = 477)24.7 ± 5.8/27 [20–30]9.8 ± 6.8/8 [5–12]<0.001
DMMs (n = 489)15.7 ± 5.9/15 [10–18.5]6.3 ± 4.6/5 [3–9]<0.001
Non-responder (%)6.3
Partial responder (%)20
Responder (%)37.7
High responder (%)36
Pain intensity (n = 460)8.9 ± 1.0/9 [8–10]6.3 ± 1.8/7 [5–8]0.000
Non-responder (%)11.9
Partial responder (%)28.8
Responder (%)35.4
High responder (%)23.9
MOH (%)66.410.40.000

Efficacy parameters before and after 5 years of treatment.

DHMs, days of headache per month; DMMs, days of migraine per month; IQR, interquartile range; MOH, medication overuse headache; SD, standard deviation.

With regard to the side effects, 17.5% of the patients reported neck pain, 17.3% headache, 8.5% brow/eyelid ptosis, 7.5% temporal muscle atrophy and 3.2% trapezius muscle atrophy (Table 3). There were no serious AE or treatment discontinuation because of safety or tolerability issues.

Table 3

AEAbsolute number and percentage
Neck pain85 (17.5%)
Headache84 (17.3%)
Brow/eyelid ptosis41 (8.5%)
Temporal atrophy36 (7.5%)
Trapezius atrophy15 (3.2%)

AE collected during the BoNTA treatment (for 5 or more years).

Discussion

This study is the first multicentre, retrospective real-world study on patients undergoing long-term treatment of CM with BoNTA for over 5 or more years. Our results revealed an excellent tolerability profile and sustained effectiveness with a response rate of nearly 60% in a relevant number of individuals with CM who had received an average of 27 cycles with BoNTA. While the average dosages (182 U) felt in the range of the recommended after the PREEMPT clinical trials, our results show that in clinical practice they can be scheduled every 4 months in almost 3 out of 10 patients and every 6 months in a minority after several years of use.

For BoNTA, it has been suggested to stop treatment in patients who convert from CM to episodic migraine or in patients who experience fewer than 10 MHDs for at least 3 months (23). In our series, based on the excellent tolerability, we prioritize patients’ preferences.

Our findings are consistent with those of previous studies that analysed the experience with BoNTA treatment for CM over a period of up to 4 years (Table 4). In the Chronic Migraine OnabotulinuMtoxinA Prolonged Efficacy Open Label (COMPEL) study that enrolled approximately 500 adult patients with CM from international sites (10), the patients were evaluated for over 108 weeks, following a 4-week baseline period. 18.3% of patients have reported ≥1 treatment-emergent AE, most commonly neck pain (4.1%). One patient suffered a serious treatment-related AE (rash). No deaths were reported. In the REPOSE Study, which was a European, open-label, multicentre, prospective, noninterventional study (11), the patients were observed for 24 months after initiating BoNTA treatment. Overall, 18.3% of the patients suffered an adverse drug reaction; most were mild to moderate intensity, with only 1.3% of patients reporting a serious AE. Moreover, eyelid ptosis (5.4%), neck pain (2.8%) and musculoskeletal stiffness (2.7%) were the most frequently reported.

Table 4

Authors and journalYear and countryType of studyPatientsFollow-up periodAE
Cernuda–Morollón E, et al. (12)
Cephalalgia
2015
Spain
Retrospectiven = 132>12 months (n = 108)
>24 months (n = 54)
>36 months (n = 50)
>48 months (n = 20)
TRAE in the first year
Eyelid ptosis (5.3%)
Neck pain (4.5%)
Dysphagia (0.8%)
Local muscle atrophy in the frontotemporal region (25%)a
Negro A, et al. (19)
SpringerPlus
2015
Italy
Prospectiven = 15524 monthsInjection site pain (3.3%)
Neck pain (3.8%)
Musculoskeletal weakness (3.8%)
Headache (3.7%)
Eyelid ptosis (2.9%)
Blumenfeld AM, et al. (10)
Cephalalgia
2016
United States
Australia
Korea
Prospectiven = 716108 weeksTRAE with an incidence of >1%
Neck pain (4.1%)
Eyelid ptosis (2.5%)
Musculoskeletal stiffness (2.4%)
Injection site pain (2%)
Headache (1.7%)
Muscular weakness (1.4%)
Facial paresis (1.3%)
Domínguez C, et al. (15)
European Journal of Neurology
2017
Spain
Prospectiven = 72512 months12.3% of patients presented with AEs after the first injection (10.2% were mild)
Guerzoni S, et al. (14)
Frontiers of Neurology
2017
Italy
Retrospectiven = 9036 monthsErythema (7.7%)
Injection site oedema (3.3%)
Itching (3.3%)
Muscle weakness (3.3%)
Headache (2.2%)
Transitory palpebral ptosis (1.1%)
Santoro A, et al. (16)
Neurological Sciences
2017
Italy
Retrospectiven = 20718 monthsNeck pain (0.9%)
Vikelis M, et al. (18)
Journal of Headache and Pain
2018
Greece
Prospectiven = 6536 monthsWheals in the injection site
Shoulder and/or neck pain
Ahmed F, et al. (11)
Journal of Headache and Pain
2019
Germany
Italy
Norway
Russia
Sweden
Spain
United Kingdom
Prospectiven = 64124 monthsEyelid ptosis (5.4%)
Neck pain (2.8%)
Musculoskeletal stiffness (2.7%)
Santoro A, et al. (17)
Neurological Sciences
2020
Italy
Retrospectiven = 10948 monthsNeck pain (5.8%)
Ornello R, et al. (20)
Journal of Headache and Pain
2020
Italy
Retrospectiven = 11515 monthsLocal tension (12.2%)
Local pain (10.4%)
Muscle weakness or atrophy (9.6%)

Characteristics of the real-life studies of BoNTA administration for the treatment of chronic migraine.

n, number; TRAE, treatment-related AE.

a

Two of eight patients treated for more than 5 years.

In the study series of Cernuda–Morollón et al. (12), AE during the first year were reported by 14.4% of the patients, including eyelid ptosis (5.3%), cervical pain (4.5%), dysphagia (0.8%) and a mixture of these (3.8%). Moreover, one-quarter of the patients (n = 2) who were treated for more than 5 years showed local muscle atrophy in the frontotemporal region. Interestingly, these studies also found that in around 40% of CM patients, BoNTA injections could be delayed to 4 months after the first year.

The first one-year prospective multicentre study conducted by Domínguez et al. (15), which was performed in 13 hospitals in Spain, confirmed the effectiveness of BoNTA treatment. Only 12.3% of patients experienced AE after the first injection of BoNTA, of which 10.2% were mild. After 12 months, 94.9% of the patients reported no AEs.

In a 15-month-prospective study, at the end of follow-up, 40 of the 115 included patients (34.8%) reported mild AE, the most common being local tension (n = 14; 12.2%), local pain (n = 12; 10.4%) and muscle weakness or atrophy (n = 11; 9.6%) (20).

In an 18-month (six quarterly cycles) retrospective study conducted by Santoro et al. (16), the efficacy of BoNTA was evaluated at each time point, in addition to the comparison with the baseline values. They proved that repeated injections over time could result in favourable outcomes in support of the observations by Negro et al. (19). During the BoNTA exposure, the reported treatment-related AE was neck pain (4.25%). In another four-year retrospective study, the same author (17) reaffirmed the sustained benefits and good tolerability of this treatment, and only a few patients (5.8%) reported neck pain during the first year of therapy.

It should be noted that the 3-year retrospective study of Guerzoni et al. (14) analysed a total of 90 patients with CM. The most frequent AEs were transitory and localised in the injection sites, mainly due to the injection procedure rather than the BoNTA effects, specifically erythema (7.7%), injection site oedema (3.3%) and itching (3.3%). The BoNTA-dependent AEs were muscle weakness (3.3%), headache (2.2%) and transitory palpebral ptosis (1.1%). Similarly to previous studies, Vikelis et al. (18) reported the sustained therapeutic effect of BoNTA in patients with CM after 3 years of treatment (months 37–39 post-treatment initiation). In their prospective study, few cases experienced transient and mild AEs, such as wheals at the injection site and shoulder and/or neck pain.

Even though the number of patients who discontinued treatment due to poor tolerability is unknown, one of the most significant findings of this study is the confirmation of the long-term safety of BoNTA, with consistent safety and tolerability profiles observed over a period exceeding 5 years. Throughout the study, the incidence rates of adverse events remained stable, and no new adverse events emerged, indicating sustained safety.

In addition to the inherent limitations of its retrospective nature and its focus solely on patients who continued long-term BoNTA treatment after the initial response, the present study has several other limitations. We did not have the total number of patients who started BoNTA treatment and, therefore, information about the proportion of patients who discontinued treatment because of lack of efficacy and/or tolerability was not available. This means that we cannot assess the real data about efficacy and tolerability and that the generalizability of our results may be limited to patients who are responders to BoNTA treatment. Moreover, the frequency of symptomatic treatment use in the last visit was not recorded, and only limited data on quality of life when BoNTA treatment was started was obtained.

Conclusion

Our study confirms that BoNTA is an effective, safe, and well-tolerated long-term treatment. In patients who initially responded to BoNTA treatment, efficacy and safety are maintained for more than 5 years, with no evidence of new adverse effects.

Statements

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Ethics statement

The studies involving humans were approved by Ethics Review Board of Zaragoza Health Area (GEC-ONA-2019-01) based in the Aragón Institute for Health Research (IIS Aragón), Zaragoza, Spain. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author contributions

MN-P: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. VG-Q: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. AM-V: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. EM: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Visualization. AA: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Visualization. GL: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. FM: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. MM: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. VM: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. DG-A: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. CG-O: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. AG-V: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. FV: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. IB: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. NM: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. JV: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. JC-L: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. JR-V: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. EC: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. PI: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. FI: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. AG-P: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. RB: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. PP-R: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. JP: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. SS-L: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.

Funding

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Abbreviations

CM, chronic migraine; BoNTA, OnabotulinumtoxinA; PREEMPT, Phase III Research Evaluating Migraine Prophylaxis Therapy; ICHD-3, International Classification of Headache Disorders; AE, adverse events; MHDs, monthly headache days; MMDs, monthly migraine days; SD, standard deviation; IQR, interquartile range; U, Units

References

  • 1.

    GBD 2021 Nervous System Disorders Collaborators. Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990-2021: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2021. Lancet Neurol. (2024) 23:34481. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(24)00038-3

  • 2.

    Headache Classification Committee of the International Headache Society (IHS) The International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd edition. Cephalalgia. (2018) 38:1211. doi: 10.1177/0333102417738202

  • 3.

    BuseDCGreismanJDBaigiKLiptonRB. Migraine progression: a systematic review. Headache. (2019) 59:30638. doi: 10.1111/head.13459

  • 4.

    AuroraSKDodickDWTurkelCCDeGryseRSilbersteinSDLiptonRBet al. OnabotulinumtoxinA for treatment of chronic migraine: results from the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled phase of the PREEMPT 1 trial. Cephalalgia. (2010) 30:793803. doi: 10.1177/0333102410364676

  • 5.

    DienerHCDodickDWAuroraSKTurkelCCDeGryseRLiptonRBet al. OnabotulinumtoxinA for treatment of chronic migraine: results from the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled phase of the PREEMPT 2 trial. Cephalalgia. (2010) 30:80414. doi: 10.1177/0333102410364677

  • 6.

    DodickDWTurkelCCDeGryseREAuroraSKSilbersteinSDLiptonRBet al. OnabotulinumtoxinA for treatment of chronic migraine: pooled results from the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled phases of the PREEMPT clinical program. Headache. (2010) 50:92136. doi: 10.1111/j.1526-4610.2010.01678.x

  • 7.

    AuroraSKWinnerPFreemanMCSpieringsELHeiringJODeGryseREet al. OnabotulinumtoxinA for treatment of chronic migraine: pooled analyses of the 56-week PREEMPT clinical program. Headache. (2011) 51:135873. doi: 10.1111/j.1526-4610.2011.01990.x

  • 8.

    DienerHCDodickDWTurkelCCDemosGDeGryseREEarlNLet al. Pooled analysis of the safety and tolerability of onabotulinumtoxinA in the treatment of chronic migraine. Eur J Neurol. (2014) 21:8519. doi: 10.1111/ene.12393

  • 9.

    AuroraSKDodickDWDienerHCDeGryseRETurkelCCLiptonRBet al. OnabotulinumtoxinA for chronic migraine: efficacy, safety, and tolerability in patients who received all five treatment cycles in the PREEMPT clinical program. Acta Neurol Scand. (2014) 129:6170. doi: 10.1111/ane.12171

  • 10.

    BlumenfeldAMStarkRJFreemanMCOrejudosAAdamsAM. Long-term study of efficacy and safety of OnabotulinumtoxinA for the prevention of chronic migraine: COMPEL. study. J Headache Pain. (2018) 13. doi: 10.1186/s10194-018-0840-8

  • 11.

    AhmedFGaulCGarcía-MomcóJCSommerKMartelettiPREPOSE Principal Investigators. An open-label prospective study of the real-life use of onabotulinumtoxinA for the treatment of chronic migraine: the REPOSE study. J Headache Pain. (2019) 20:26. doi: 10.1186/s10194-019-0976-1

  • 12.

    Cernuda-MorollónERamónCLarrosaDÁlvarezRRiescoNPascualJ. Long-term experience with onabotulinumtoxinA in the treatment of chronic migraine: what happens after one-year?Cephalalgia. (2015) 35:8648. doi: 10.1177/0333102414561873

  • 13.

    Aicua-RapunIMartínez-VelascoERojoAHernandoARuizMCarreresAet al. Real-life data in 115 chronic migraine patients treated with Onabotulinumtoxin a during more than one year. J Headache Pain. (2016) 17:112. doi: 10.1186/s10194-016-0702-1

  • 14.

    GuerzoniSPellesiLBaraldiCCainazzoMMNegroAMartellettiPet al. Long-term treatment benefits and prolonged efficacy of OnabotulinumtoxinA in patients affected by chronic migraine and medication overuse headache over 3 years of therapy. Front Neurol. (2017) 8:586. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2017.00586

  • 15.

    DomínguezCPozoPTorresMHernándezNJurado-CoboCGonzález-OriaCet al. OnabotulinumtoxinA in chronic migraine: predictors of response. A prospective multicentre descriptive study. Eur J Neurol. (2017) 25:4116. doi: 10.1111/ene.13523

  • 16.

    SantoroAFontanaAMiscioAMZarrelliMCopettiMLeoneM. Quarterly repeat cycles of onabotulinumtoxinA in chronic migraine patients: the benefit of the prolonged treatment on the continuous responders and quality of life conversion rate in a real-life setting. Neurol Sci. (2017) 38:177989. doi: 10.1007/s10072-017-3054-y

  • 17.

    SantoroACopettiMMiscioAMLeoneMFontanaA. Chronic migraine long-term regular treatment with onabotulinumtoxinA: a retrospective real-life observational study up to 4 years of therapy. Neurol Sci. (2020) 41:180920. doi: 10.1007/s10072-020-04283-y

  • 18.

    VikelisMArgyriouADermitzakisESpingosKMakrisNKararizouE. Sustained onabotulinumtoxinA therapeutic benefits in patients with chronic migraine over 3 years of treatment. J Headache Pain. (2018) 19:87. doi: 10.1186/s10194-018-0918-3

  • 19.

    NegroACurtoMLionettoLCrialesiDMartellettiP. OnabotulinumtoxinA 155U in medication overuse headache: a two years prospective study. Springerplus. (2015) 4:826. doi: 10.1186/s40064-015-1636-9

  • 20.

    OrnelloRGuerzoniSBaraldiCEvangelistaLFrattaleIMariniCet al. Sustained response to onabotulinumtoxinA in patients with chronic migraine: real-life data. J Headache Pain. (2020) 21:40. doi: 10.1186/s10194-020-01113-6

  • 21.

    EzpeletaDPozo-RosichP. Guía oficial de práctica clínica en cefaleas. Guías diagnósticas y terapéuticas de la Sociedad Española de Neurología. Madrid: Ediciones SEN (2015).

  • 22.

    von ElmEAltmanDGEggerMPocockSJGøtzschePCVandenbrouckeJP. The strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology (STROBE) statement: guidelines for reporting observational studies. J Clin Epidemiol. (2008) 61:3449. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2007.11.008

  • 23.

    Al-HassanyLLyonsHSBoucherieDMFarhamFLangeKSMarschollekKet al. The sense of stopping migraine prophylaxis. J Headache Pain. (2023) 24:9. doi: 10.1186/s10194-023-01539-8

Summary

Keywords

chronic migraine, migraine, OnabotulinumtoxinA, prevention, prophylaxis, treatment

Citation

Navarro-Pérez MP, González-Quintanilla V, Muñoz-Vendrell A, Madrigal E, Alpuente A, Latorre G, Molina F, Monzón MJ, Medrano V, García-Azorín D, González-Oria C, Gago-Veiga A, Velasco F, Beltrán I, Morollón N, Viguera J, Casas-Limón J, Rodríguez-Vico J, Cuadrado E, Irimia P, Iglesias F, Guerrero-Peral ÁL, Belvís R, Pozo-Rosich P, Pascual J and Santos-Lasaosa S (2024) Long-term safety of OnabotulinumtoxinA treatment in chronic migraine patients: a five-year retrospective study. Front. Neurol. 15:1417831. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1417831

Received

15 April 2024

Accepted

31 May 2024

Published

13 June 2024

Volume

15 - 2024

Edited by

Catherine Stika, Northwestern University, United States

Reviewed by

Marta Waliszewska-Prosół, Wroclaw Medical University, Poland

Lanfranco Pellesi, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

Updates

Copyright

*Correspondence: Pablo Irimia,

Disclaimer

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Outline

Cite article

Copy to clipboard


Export citation file


Share article

Article metrics