What's the evidence for sumatriptan?

There is a lot of good evidence about sumatriptan. We found two big summaries of the evidence (known as systematic reviews)^{1 2} We also found several other good-quality studies (called randomised controlled trials).

One of the reviews looked at a total of 11 studies on sumatriptan that included 3,185 people.¹ The studies in the review were all high-quality.

Some of the studies looked at how well sumatriptan tablets worked compared with dummy treatments (placebo treatments). Other studies compared sumatriptan with other similar drug treatments for migraine.

The other review included a total of 30 studies with 7,437 people.² It looked at different forms of sumatriptan (for example, nasal sprays and injections) and compared them with placebos. It found that all the forms of sumatriptan were better at treating migraine attacks than placebos were.

Some additional studies have also looked at different ways of using sumatriptan and compared sumatriptan to other medicines for migraine. We have summarised the results of the reviews and the additional studies.

• Having sumatriptan as a nasal spray or an injection works about the same as having sumatriptan tablets.^{2 1}
• Sumatriptan doesn't work for as many people as another triptan called eletriptan.^{1 3 4}
• Sumatriptan works about the same as zolmitriptan.⁵
• Sumatriptan works better than a drug called ergotamine combined with caffeine.⁶
• One study showed that aspirin combined with a drug to stop you feeling sick (metoclopramide) seems to work as well as sumatriptan.⁷.

One big summary of the research (a systematic review) looked at all the triptan drugs available at the time (in 2007). It looked at 221 studies in total and selected 38 good-quality studies. The researchers said all triptans worked better than a dummy drug (a placebo) to reduce pain or get rid of migraine within two hours. But only sumatriptan and rizatriptan worked better than a placebo drug within half an hour.⁸

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