Patients experienced a mean of 6.5 headaches per month with a range of 1 to 16. The majority of patients reported that their headache pain was usually moderate or severe in intensity and had a gradual onset. Tension-type headaches among patients in the four studies had an average age of onset of 21 to 25 years. The caffeine adjuvant effect noted in these studies was greater than that predicted by Laska and colleagues. These authors evaluated the value of caffeine as an analgesic adjuvant by reviewing the results of 30 clinical studies involving over 10,000 patients.
Migraine formulation is due, in part, to the analgesic adjuvant effect of caffeine.
Caffeine as an analgesic adjuvant in tension headache. Clin Pharmacol Ther. Laska EM, Sunshine A, Mueller F, Elvers WB, Siegel C, Rubin A. Caffeine as an analgesic adjuvant. Ad Hoc Committee on the Classification of Headache, National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness. Classification of headache.