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Table 2 Results of the network meta-analysis

From: The comparative effectiveness of migraine preventive drugs: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

  1. We present dichotomous outcomes (50% reduction in monthly migraine days and adverse events leading to discontinuation) number of events per 1,000 patients, compared to placebo. For example, among 1,000 patients using fremanezumab for migraine, 341 more patients will experience a 50% or more reduction in monthly migraine days, compared to 1,000 patients using placebo. To calculate absolute effects for 50% or more reduction in monthly migraine days, we estimated a baseline risk (i.e., the risk of experiencing a 50% or more reduction in monthly migraine days with placebo) by calculating the median risk across placebo arms across all trials. We subsequently used the baseline risk and the relative risk to calculate a risk difference. We present monthly migraine days as mean difference in migraine days and associated confidence intervals, compared to placebo. For example, fremanezumab results in an average of 2·22 fewer monthly migraine days, compared to placebo. The panel on the right presents the direction of effects, GRADE ratings, and their interpretation. High certainty evidence indicates situations in which we have high certainty that the true effect lies close to estimated effect and low or very low certainty evidence indicates situations in which the true effect may be substantially different from the estimated effect. For example, results in dark green suggest high certainty evidence that a drug is better than placebo whereas results in dark red suggest high certainty evidence that the drug is more harmful than placebo 
  2. * downgraded due to risk of bias
  3. † downgraded due to imprecision
  4. ‡ downgraded due to inconsistency
  5. MCID minimal clinically important difference; MID The minimal important difference
  6. We classified drugs into the following nodes, regardless of dose: beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, gepants, gabapentin/pregabalin, topiramate, valproate, amitriptyline, carisbamate, and oxcarbazepine. We also included each of the CGRP(r)mAbs as separate nodes, to facilitate comparisons between them. We grouped beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, gepants, and gabapentin/pregabalin because we anticipated similar efficacy and safety