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Título

Botulinum Toxin as a Preventive Treatment for Migraines

Resumo

Introduction: Migraine is a disease that affects about 12% of the world population. This headache can be characterized as intense and often debilitating, resulting in impairments in work capacity, in social life and generating large expenses for health services. As a result, prophylactic treatments for chronic migraines began to gain greater value and adherence among those affected by this disease. Among the wide range of possible treatments, botulinum toxin has been gaining prominence in the preventive treatment of chronic migraines for more than a decade, although its mechanism of action is gradually being understood. Objective: To systematically evaluate advances in the use of botulinum toxin as a preventive treatment for migraine, considering improvements in quality of life and considering its cost-benefits for the patient. Methodology: This is a systematic literature review based on data extraction in indexes such as PUBMED and MEDLINE. Publications from 2018 to 2022 were considered, in English and with the following descriptors: Botulinum Toxin, Migraine and Treatments. Results: Since the approval of botulinum toxin as a preventive treatment for migraine, the results of the various studies carried out have demonstrated its strong efficacy, as it leads to a significant decrease in the number of hours in crises that the patient was affected in the month. In addition, patients who used this preventive treatment showed a positive result after about 2 months of medication use and quickly showed improvement in quality of life, in work and social activities. Finally, the studies point to a continuity in the clinical improvement after treatment, since the effects of the toxin remained over time. Conclusion: Preventive treatments for chronic migraine seek to reduce the number of hours and amount of attacks per month that each patient is affected. From this perspective, botulinum toxin gains prominence for guaranteeing both possibilities, in addition to offering a lower cost than the new monoclonal medications. This presented relationship guarantees the outstanding local botulinum toxin in the field of preventive medicine for these situations.

Palavras Chave

Keywords: Migraine. Botulinum toxin. Migraine. preventive treatment