Although many medications used to treat migraines have been proven effective in relieving the pain of this headache type, studies that have looked specifically at the effect of medicines on work productivity are hard to find. Triptans, however, are an exception to this.

This class of drugs is one of two that is migraine-specific. Triptans are effective in relieving migraine headaches quickly and are used to treat attacks as they occur. This is referred to as “acute treatment.” Prophylactic treatment, intended to prevent a migraine headache, is also available but is not the focus of the model, for reasons discussed below.

Several clinical trials and open-label studies have evaluated the effect of triptans on work productivity and found they positively impact the amount of time lost from work. Since direct evidence of the impact of triptans on work productivity was available for this class but not others, a decision was made to include only triptans in the model.

This does not mean that other medications used to treat migraines are ineffective in reducing time lost from work, just that we don’t have the evidence from clinical studies right now. Since many other drugs improve migraine headaches, we would expect other medicines to improve productivity as well.

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