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Nutraceuticals and migraine: further strategy for the treatment of specific conditions

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Abstract

Nutraceuticals might be defined as food or dietary supplements that provide medicinal or health benefits. Current preventive treatment of migraine includes nutraceuticals as well as conventional drugs. These non-pharmacological therapies, such as magnesium, coenzyme Q10, feverfew, riboflavin, and phycocyanins, are particularly useful in certain categories of patients (adolescents, pregnant or breastfeeding women, the elderly with complex drug therapy, the patient with contraindication to the usual pharmacological therapies) when a conventional drug therapy cannot be prescribed or may be not well tolerated. The evidence currently available confirms a modest efficacy but a very good safety and tolerability profile.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Headache Center, Neurology Unit, University Hospital of Parma, Via Gramsci 14, 43126, Parma, PR, Italy

    Simone Quintana & Paola Torelli

  2. Headache Centre, Neurology Unit, AUSL IRCCS Reggio Emilia, 0521 704100, Reggio Emilia, Italy

    Marco Russo

Authors
  1. Simone Quintana
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  2. Marco Russo
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  3. Paola Torelli
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Correspondence to Simone Quintana.

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Cannabis

The endocannabinoid system has a neuro-modulatory role that influences many physiological functions, including pain processing and modulation of trigeminal excitability, pathophysiological assumption supporting the possible usefulness in the treatment of migraine. As found in a recent review [10], the growing body of supporting evidence consists of retrospective studies, online surveys, case series, and case reports, and migraine patients enrolled in these studies usually used different cannabis preparations through different routes of administration, making it difficult to explore the therapeutic potential of the Cannabis plant. Proper placebo-controlled trials are needed to establish the therapeutic role for cannabinoids (plant-derived or synthetic) in migraine treatment.

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This article does not contain any study with human subjects performed by any of the authors.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Quintana, S., Russo, M. & Torelli, P. Nutraceuticals and migraine: further strategy for the treatment of specific conditions. Neurol Sci 43, 6565–6567 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-022-06250-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-022-06250-1

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