Triptans in clinical practice: the basic scientist’s point of view

Abstract

IntroductionTen-year experience with sumatriptan and, to a lesser extent, with second-generation triptans, is probably enough to make up our minds about the revolutionary therapeutical tools they are in clinical practice. However, thinking from other points of view may offer clues for better prescribing one triptan rather than others and for choosing among them according to patients' needs. Therefore, it is useful to rethink triptans as a class with several mechanisms beyond the pure clinical efficacy. These mechanisms are reviewed and future directions for clinical research studies for further understanding and drug development are discussed. The relevance of neurovascular mechanismsSince the observation that sumatriptan, the first triptan to be synthetized as a specific anti-migraine compound, was able to block neurogenic inflammation (NI) in intra-and J Headache Pain (2001) 2:S93-S96