Administrative prevalence and incidence, characteristics and prescription patterns of patients with migraine in Germany: a retrospective claims data analysis

Table 5 Prescribed acute and emergency medications for patients with migraine in the German Company Sickness Fund Database 2016

Acute medication	Percentage of all prescriptions for acute medications
Anti-emetics^a	4.5%
Metoclopramide	3.7%
Analgesics/non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs^b	74.2%
Ibuprofen	23.7%
Metamizole	19.7%
Opioids	19.1%
Diclofenac	7.9%
Cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors (‘coxibs’)	2.5%
Naproxen	1.1%
Selective serotonin (5-HT1) agonists (triptans)^c	21.2%
Sumatriptan^d (all administration routes)	12.3%
Rizatriptan	4.7%
Zolmitriptan^e (all administration routes)	2.6%
Emergency medication^f	Percentage of all prescriptions for emergency medications
Dexamethasone	51.3%
Prednisone	25.4%
Sumatriptan (subcutaneous)	13.9%
Metamizole (intravenous)	7.9%
Acetylsalicylic acid (intravenous)	1.2%

Subcutaneous sumatriptan is considered both an acute and emergency medication according to the German guideline for migraine so all identified subcutaneous sumatriptan prescriptions were included as both acute and emergency medications
^aAlso includes dimenhydrinate (0.10% of acute prescriptions) and domperidone (0.66%)
^bAlso includes acetylsalicylic acid (0.04% of acute prescriptions), paracetamol (0.10%), ergotamine (0.05%), ketoprofen (0.03%), dexketoprofen (0.20%) and other analgesics (0.92%)
^cAlso includes eleptriptan (0.18% of acute prescriptions), almotriptan (0.06%), naratriptan (0.99%) and frovatriptan (0.38%)
^dIncludes sumatriptan oral (11.8% of acute prescriptions), nasal (0.20%), rectal (0.07%) and subcutaneous (0.27%)
^eIncludes zolmitriptan oral (1.6% of acute prescriptions) and nasal (1.0%)
^fAlso includes metoclopramide (intravenous: 0.33% of emergency prescriptions)

ISSN: 1129-2377