comparison between intravenous sodium valproate and subcutaneous sumatriptan for treatment of acute migraine attacks; double-blind randomized clinical trial

background: sodium valproate (sv) has been approved for migraine prophylaxis and its intravenous form is used to treat acute migraine attacks. we compared the efficacy and safety of intravenous sv and subcutaneous sumatriptan in managing acute migraine attacks. methods: this double-blind randomized clinical trial divided 90 patients into two groups: one group received 400 mg of intravenous sv and the second group received 6 mg of subcutaneous sumatriptan. headache severity before treatment and half an hour, one hour, and two hours after treatment was measured based on the vnrs in the groups. associated symptoms, i.e., photophobia, phonophobia, nausea, and vomiting, were assayed on admission and 2 hours after treatment. side effects of the drugs were checked 2 hours after injection. obtained data from the groups were compared. results: in both groups, pain decrement at the mentioned time points was significant (p<0.001), but had no significant difference (p>0.05), indicating the similar effect of both drugs on pain improvement. in the sv group, photophobia, phonophobia, nausea, and vomiting were improved significantly, while in the sumatriptan group, only photophobia and vomiting were decreased significantly, indicating the advantage of sv in improving the associated symptoms. nausea, vomiting, facial paresthesia, and hypotension were more significantly frequent in the sumatriptan group than in the sv group (p<0.05). conclusion: intravenous sv (400 mg) was as effective as subcutaneous sumatriptan in the treatment of acute migraine attacks, but with more improvement in associated symptoms and with fewer side effects. trial registration number: irct201108025943n4